Planning and control framework with communication messaging

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for operating a first device. The first device obtains environment information in proximity to the first device and receives one or more communication messages from a second device and the message(s) includes relevance criteria, wherein the relevance criteria indicates one or more devices, one or more sets of device characteristics, one or more lanes, one or more intersections or areas, one or more pedestrian paths or bicycle paths, one or more signal characteristics from the second device or any combination thereof. The first device determines whether the one or more communication messages are relevant to the first device based on the relevance criteria and the environment information and performs an operation in response to the determination of whether the one or more communication messages are relevant.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 16/547,901, entitled “PLANNING AND CONTROL FRAMEWORK WITHCOMMUNICATION MESSAGING,” filed Aug. 22, 2019. The applications recitedabove are assigned to the assignee hereof and are hereby expresslyincorporated by reference in their entirety herein.

FIELD

This disclosure relates generally to methods, devices, and computerreadable medium for communication and/or messaging between differentdevices (e.g. vehicles, infrastructure, etc.), including determiningrelevance of messaging, validating messaging, etc.

BACKGROUND

Advanced driver assistance autonomous systems (ADAS) may be partiallyautonomous, fully autonomous or capable of providing assistance to adriver of a vehicle. Current ADAS have cameras and ultrasound sensors,and some include one or more radars. However, these current systemsoperate independent of other nearby vehicles and each perform redundantoperations.

In some messaging systems, such as dedicated short-range communications(DSRC), any messaging received is assumed to be relevant to thereceiving device so there may be wasted resources by the receivingdevice by processing the message and determining how it applies to thedevice. Additionally, messages are assumed to be valid and not spoofed,and using similar communication encryption techniques without validatingthe information provided by a device within the system, which may resultin vehicle collisions or inefficient or unsafe movements by thesevehicles.

SUMMARY

An example of a method to determine whether one or more communicationmessages are relevant to a first device. The method obtains environmentinformation in proximity to the first device and receives one or morecommunication messages from a second device and the message(s) includesrelevance criteria, wherein the relevance criteria indicates one or moredevices, one or more sets of device characteristics, one or more lanes,one or more intersections or areas, one or more pedestrian paths orbicycle paths, one or more signal characteristics from the second deviceor any combination thereof. The method determines whether the one ormore communication messages are relevant to the first device based onthe relevance criteria and the environment information and performs anoperation in response to the determination of whether the one or morecommunication messages are relevant.

An example of a device to determine whether one or more communicationmessages are relevant to a first device may include one or more memory,one or more transceivers and one or more processors communicativelycoupled to the one or more memory and the one or more transceivers. Theprocessors configured to obtain environment information in proximity tothe first device, and receives, via the one or more transceivers, one ormore communication messages from a second device and the message(s)includes relevance criteria, wherein the relevance criteria indicatesone or more devices, one or more sets of device characteristics, one ormore lanes, one or more intersections or areas, one or more pedestrianpaths or bicycle paths, one or more signal characteristics from thesecond device or any combination thereof. The processors are configuredto determine whether the one or more communication messages are relevantto the first device based on the relevance criteria and the environmentinformation and perform an operation in response to the determination ofwhether the one or more communication messages are relevant.

An example of a device for determining whether one or more communicationmessages are relevant to a first device. The device comprises means forobtaining environment information in proximity to the first device andmeans for receiving one or more communication messages from a seconddevice and the message(s) includes relevance criteria, wherein therelevance criteria indicates one or more devices, one or more sets ofdevice characteristics, one or more lanes, one or more intersections orareas, one or more pedestrian paths or bicycle paths, one or more signalcharacteristics from the second device or any combination thereof. Thedevice comprises means for determining whether the one or morecommunication messages are relevant to the first device based on therelevance criteria and the environment information and means forperforming an operation in response to the determination of whether theone or more communication messages are relevant.

An example non-transitory computer-readable medium for determiningwhether one or more communication messages are relevant to a firstdevice includes processor-readable instructions configured to cause oneor more processors to obtain environment information in proximity to thefirst device, and receive one or more communication messages from asecond device and the message(s) includes relevance criteria, whereinthe relevance criteria indicates one or more devices, one or more setsof device characteristics, one or more lanes, one or more intersectionsor areas, one or more pedestrian paths or bicycle paths, one or moresignal characteristics from the second device or any combinationthereof. The non-transitory computer-readable medium configured to causeone or more processors to determine whether the one or morecommunication messages are relevant to the first device based on therelevance criteria and the environment information and perform anoperation in response to the determination of whether the one or morecommunication messages are relevant.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive aspects are described with reference tothe following figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to likeparts throughout the various figures unless otherwise specified.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a communication environment in which variousaspects of the disclosure may be implemented.

FIG. 2 shows an example process diagram illustrating a method ofdetermining whether one or more communication messages are relevant toan ego device.

FIG. 3 is an example process diagram illustrating notifying nearbydevices of issues and/or intentions.

FIG. 4 is an example map of devices illustrating notifying nearbydevices of issues and/or intentions.

FIG. 5 is an example process diagram illustrating vehicle platoonnegotiation.

FIG. 6 is an example map of devices illustrating vehicle platoonnegotiation.

FIG. 7 is an example process diagram illustrating requesting informationfrom nearby devices.

FIG. 8 is an example mobile device and the components within the mobiledevice in which aspects of the disclosure may be implemented.

FIG. 9 is an example server and the components within the server inwhich aspects of the disclosure may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The features and advantages of the disclosed method and apparatus willbecome more apparent to those skilled in the art after considering thefollowing detailed description in connection with the accompanyingdrawing.

References throughout this specification to one implementation, animplementation, an embodiment, and/or the like mean that a particularfeature, structure, characteristic, and/or the like described inrelation to a particular implementation and/or embodiment is included inat least one implementation and/or embodiment of claimed subject matter.Thus, appearances of such phrases, for example, in various placesthroughout this specification are not necessarily intended to refer tothe same implementation and/or embodiment or to any one particularimplementation and/or embodiment. Furthermore, it is to be understoodthat particular features, structures, characteristics, and/or the likedescribed are capable of being combined in various ways in one or moreimplementations and/or embodiments and, therefore, are within intendedclaim scope. However, these and other issues have a potential to vary ina particular context of usage. In other words, throughout thedisclosure, particular context of description and/or usage provideshelpful guidance regarding reasonable inferences to be drawn; however,likewise, “in this context” in general without further qualificationrefers to the context of the present disclosure.

Additionally, figures and descriptions of the figures may indicate roadsthat may have right side driving and/or structured lane markings;however, these are merely examples and the disclosure is also applicableto left side driving, unstructured roads/lanes, etc.

The term “quasi-periodic” refers to an event that occurs periodicallywith a frequency that may change from time to time, and/or to an eventoccurs from time to time with no well-defined frequency.

A mobile device (e.g. mobile device 100 in FIG. 1) may be referred to asa device, a wireless device, a mobile terminal, a terminal, a mobilestation (MS), a user equipment (UE), a secure user-plane location (SUPL)Enabled Terminal (SET) or by some other name and may correspond to orimplemented in a moveable/portable entity/device. A moveable/portabledevice/entity may be a cellphone, smartphone, laptop, tablet, PDA,tracking device, transport vehicle, robotic device (e.g. aerial drone,land drone, etc.) or some other portable or moveable device. Thetransport vehicle may be an automobile, motorcycle, airplane, train,bicycle, truck, rickshaw, etc. The moveable/portable device/entity mayoperate behalf of a transport vehicle during periods when the portabledevice is collocated with the transport vehicle. For example, a smartphone may be used to communicate on behalf of a transport vehicle whilethe two are temporally co-located (this may be in conjunction with anon-board device of the transport vehicle but is not required). A device(e.g. network entity) may be a stationary device, such as a road sideunit (RSU), traffic light, etc. Typically, though not necessarily, amobile device may support wireless communication technologies andprotocols such as GSM, WCDMA, LTE, CDMA, HRPD, WiFi, BT, WiMax, WiFiDirect, LTE Direct, and 5G, etc. A mobile device may also supportwireless communication using a wireless LAN (WLAN), DSL or packet cablefor example. A mobile device may comprise a single entity or maycomprise multiple entities such as in a personal area network where auser may employ audio, video and/or data I/O devices and/or body sensorsand a separate wireline or wireless modem. An estimate of a location ofa mobile device (e.g., mobile device 100) may be referred to as alocation, location estimate, location fix, fix, position, positionestimate or position fix, and may be geographic, thus providing locationcoordinates for the mobile device (e.g., latitude and longitude) whichmay or may not include an altitude component (e.g., height above sealevel, height above or depth below ground level, floor level or basementlevel). Alternatively, a location of a mobile device may be expressed asa civic location (e.g., as a postal address or the designation of somepoint or small area in a building such as a particular room or floor). Alocation of a mobile device may also be expressed as an area or volume(defined either geographically or in civic form) within which the mobiledevice is expected to be located with some probability or confidencelevel (e.g., 67% or 95%). A location of a mobile device may further be arelative location comprising, for example, a distance and direction orrelative X, Y (and Z) coordinates defined relative to some origin at aknown location which may be defined geographically or in civic terms orby reference to a point, area or volume indicated on a map, floor planor building plan. In the description contained herein, the use of theterm location may comprise any of these variants unless indicatedotherwise.

A subject device is an observed or measured device, or a device that isin proximity with an ego device.

An ego device is a device that observes or measures information relatedto its environment, including information corresponding to a nearbysubject device. For example, an ego vehicle may obtain image data fromits cameras and perform computer vision operations based on this data todetermine information, such as position of another device or vehicle(e.g. subject device) relative to the ego device.

Managed (or Infrastructure) communication means point-to-pointcommunication from a client device to a remote base station and/or othernetwork entities, such as vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) but does notinclude vehicle to vehicle. The remote base station and/or other networkentities may be the end destination, or the end destination may beanother mobile device that is connected to the same or different remotebase station. Managed communication may also include cellular basedprivate networks.

Unmanaged, ad-hoc, or Peer-to-peer (P2P) communication means clientdevices may communicate directly (with each other or may hop through oneor more other client devices without communicating through a networkentity (e.g. network infrastructure such as an eNodeB or gNodeB, etc.)for vehicle communication, such as vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and V2I.Unmanaged communication may include ad-hoc network that are cellularbased, such as LTE-direct.

In one embodiment, there may be a hybrid managed communication where atleast part of the communications is managed communications and anotherpart of unmanaged communications. For example, a device may receivecontrol information from a managed network that provides controlinformation (e.g. scheduling, etc) for the unmanaged communications, butother control information and data information may be handled via theunmanaged network.

According to aspects of the disclosure, a device may have managedcommunication capabilities and peer-to-peer communication capabilitiesfor short range communication, such as Bluetooth® or Wi-Fi Direct, but adevice may have P2P but it does not mean the device has unmanagedcommunication capabilities, such as V2V or V2X.

V2V messaging, V2I messaging, P2P messaging, etc. may includepoint-to-point messaging and/or broadcast/multicast messaging.Point-to-point messaging involves communicating with a particular device(e.g. usually a single device). Broadcast/multicast messaging involvesproviding a message to the devices in proximity of the broadcastingdevice (either omnidirectional or in a particular direction from the egodevice). Managed communications, Unmanaged communication or a hybridmanaged communication may be point-to-point messaging orbroadcast/multicast messaging.

A trip session may be from when a vehicle is turned on to when a vehicleis turned off. In one embodiment, a trip session may be until a vehiclehas reached a destination. In one embodiment, a trip session may bedefined by an application, such as Uber® or Lyft®, so each ride providedto one or more passengers may be considered a trip session.

System and techniques herein provide for communication and/or messagingbetween devices and validation of the communication and/or messagingbetween devices.

As shown in FIG. 1 in a particular implementation, mobile device 100,which may also be referred to as a UE (or user equipment), may transmitradio signals to, and receive radio signals from, a wirelesscommunication network. In one example, mobile device 100 may communicatewith a cellular communication network by transmitting wireless signalsto or receiving wireless signals from a cellular transceiver 110 whichmay comprise a wireless base transceiver subsystem (BTS), a Node B or anevolved NodeB (eNodeB) (for 5G this would be a 5G NR base station(gNodeB)) over wireless communication link 123. Similarly, mobile device100 may transmit wireless signals to, or receive wireless signals fromlocal transceiver 115 over wireless communication link 125. A localtransceiver 115 may comprise an access point (AP), femtocell, Home BaseStation, small cell base station, Home Node B (HNB) or Home eNodeB(HeNB) and may provide access to a wireless local area network (WLAN,e.g., IEEE 802.11 network), a wireless personal area network (WPAN,e.g., Bluetooth® network) or a cellular network (e.g. an LTE network orother wireless wide area network such as those discussed in the nextparagraph). Of course, these are merely examples of networks that maycommunicate with a mobile device over a wireless link, and claimedsubject matter is not limited in this respect.

Examples of network technologies that may support wireless communicationlink 123 are Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), CodeDivision Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), Long TermEvolution LTE), High Rate Packet Data (HRPD). GSM, WCDMA, LTE, and 5G NRare technologies defined by 3GPP. CDMA and HRPD are technologies definedby the 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2). WCDMA is alsopart of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and may besupported by an HNB. Cellular transceivers 110 may comprise deploymentsof equipment providing subscriber access to a wireless telecommunicationnetwork for a service (e.g., under a service contract). Here, a cellulartransceiver 110 may perform functions of a cellular base station inservicing subscriber devices within a cell determined based, at least inpart, on a range at which the cellular transceiver 110 is capable ofproviding access service. Examples of radio technologies that maysupport wireless communication link 125 are IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth (BT)and LTE.

In some embodiments, system may use, for example, aVehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication standard, in which informationmay be passed between a device and other entities coupled to acommunication network 110, which may include wireless communicationsubnets. V2X services may include, for example, one or more of servicesfor: Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications (e.g. between vehicles viaa direct communication interface such as Proximity-based Services(ProSe) Direction Communication (PC5) and/or Dedicated Short RangeCommunications (DSRC)) (which is considered unmanaged communication),Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) communications (e.g. between a vehicle and aUser Equipment (UE) such as a mobile device) (which is consideredunmanaged communication), Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications(e.g. between a vehicle and a base station (BS) or between a vehicle anda roadside unit (RSU)) (which is considered managed communication),and/or Vehicle-to-Network (V2N) communications (e.g. between a vehicleand an application server) (which is considered managed communication).V2X includes various modes of operation for V2X services as defined inThird Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) TS 23.285. One mode ofoperation may use direct wireless communications between V2X entitieswhen the V2X entities are within range of each other. Another mode ofoperation may use network based wireless communication between entities.The modes of operation above may be combined or other modes of operationmay be used if desired. It is important to note that this may also atleast partially be a proprietary standard, a different standard or anycombination thereof.

The V2X standard may be viewed as facilitating advanced driverassistance systems (ADAS), which also includes fully autonomousvehicles, other levels of vehicle automation (e.g. Level 2, Level 3,Level 4, Level 5), or automation and coordination not currently definedin autonomous vehicle automation levels. Depending on capabilities, anADAS may make driving decisions (e.g. navigation, lane changes,determining safe distances between vehicles, cruising/overtaking speed,braking, parking, platooning, etc.) and/or provide drivers withactionable information to facilitate driver decision making. In someembodiments, V2X may use low latency communications thereby facilitatingreal time or near real time information exchange and precisepositioning. As one example, positioning techniques, such as one or moreof: Satellite Positioning System (SPS) based techniques (e.g. based onspace vehicles 160) and/or cellular based positioning techniques such astime of arrival (TOA), time difference of arrival (TDOA) or observedtime difference of arrival (OTDOA), may be enhanced using V2X assistanceinformation. V2X communications may thus help in achieving and providinga high degree of safety for moving vehicles, pedestrians, etc.

In a particular implementation, cellular transceiver 110 and/or localtransceiver 115 may communicate with servers 140, 150 and/or 155 over anetwork 130 through links 145. Here, network 130 may comprise anycombination of wired or wireless links and may include cellulartransceiver 110 and/or local transceiver 115 and/or servers 140, 150 and155. In a particular implementation, network 130 may comprise InternetProtocol (IP) or other infrastructure capable of facilitatingcommunication between mobile device 100 and servers 140, 150 or 155through local transceiver 115 or cellular transceiver 110. Network 130may also facilitate communication between mobile device 100, servers140, 150 and/or 155 and a public safety answering point (PSAP) 160, forexample through communications link 165). In an implementation, network130 may comprise cellular communication network infrastructure such as,for example, a base station controller or packet based or circuit-basedswitching center (not shown) to facilitate mobile cellular communicationwith mobile device 100. In a particular implementation, network 130 maycomprise local area network (LAN) elements such as WLAN APs, routers andbridges and may in that case include or have links to gateway elementsthat provide access to wide area networks such as the Internet. In otherimplementations, network 130 may comprise a LAN and may or may not haveaccess to a wide area network but may not provide any such access (ifsupported) to mobile device 100. In some implementations network 130 maycomprise multiple networks (e.g., one or more wireless networks and/orthe Internet). In one embodiment, network 130 may include one or moreserving gateways or Packet Data Network gateways. In addition, one ormore of servers 140, 150 and 155 may be an E-SMLC, a Secure User PlaneLocation (SUPL) Location Platform (SLP), a SUPL Location Center (SLC), aSUPL Positioning Center (SPC), a Position Determining Entity (PDE)and/or a gateway mobile location center (GMLC), each of which mayconnect to one or more location retrieval functions (LRFs) and/ormobility management entities (MMEs) in network 130.

In particular implementations, and as discussed below, mobile device 100may have circuitry and processing resources capable of obtaininglocation related measurements (e.g. for signals received from GPS orother Satellite Positioning System (SPS) satellites 114, cellulartransceiver 110 or local transceiver 115 and computing a position fix orestimated location of mobile device 100 based on these location relatedmeasurements. In some implementations, location related measurementsobtained by mobile device 100 may be transferred to a location serversuch as an enhanced serving mobile location center (E-SMLC) or SUPLlocation platform (SLP) (e.g. which may be one of servers 140, 150 and155) after which the location server may estimate or determine alocation for mobile device 100 based on the measurements. In thepresently illustrated example, location related measurements obtained bymobile device 100 may include measurements of signals (124) receivedfrom satellites belonging to an SPS or Global Navigation SatelliteSystem (GNSS) such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo or Beidou and/or may includemeasurements of signals (such as 123 and/or 125) received fromterrestrial transmitters fixed at known locations (e.g., such ascellular transceiver 110). Mobile device 100 or a separate locationserver may then obtain a location estimate for mobile device 100 basedon these location related measurements using any one of several positionmethods such as, for example, GNSS, Assisted GNSS (A-GNSS), AdvancedForward Link Trilateration (AFLT), Observed Time Difference Of Arrival(OTDOA) or Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID) or combinations thereof. In some ofthese techniques (e.g. A-GNSS, AFLT and OTDOA), pseudoranges or timingdifferences may be measured at mobile device 100 relative to three ormore terrestrial transmitters fixed at known locations or relative tofour or more satellites with accurately known orbital data, orcombinations thereof, based at least in part, on pilots, positioningreference signals (PRS) or other positioning related signals transmittedby the transmitters or satellites and received at mobile device 100.Here, servers 140, 150 or 155 may be capable of providing positioningassistance data to mobile device 100 including, for example, informationregarding signals to be measured (e.g., signal timing), locations andidentities of terrestrial transmitters and/or signal, timing and orbitalinformation for GNSS satellites to facilitate positioning techniquessuch as A-GNSS, AFLT, OTDOA and E-CID. For example, servers 140, 150 or155 may comprise an almanac which indicates locations and identities ofcellular transceivers and/or local transceivers in a particular regionor regions such as a particular venue, and may provide informationdescriptive of signals transmitted by a cellular base station or AP suchas transmission power and signal timing. In the case of E-CID, a mobiledevice 100 may obtain measurements of signal strengths for signalsreceived from cellular transceiver 110 and/or local transceiver 115and/or may obtain a round trip signal propagation time (RTT) betweenmobile device 100 and a cellular transceiver 110 or local transceiver115. A mobile device 100 may use these measurements together withassistance data (e.g. terrestrial almanac data or GNSS satellite datasuch as GNSS Almanac and/or GNSS Ephemeris information) received from aserver 140, 150 or 155 to determine a location for mobile device 100 ormay transfer the measurements to a server 140, 150 or 155 to perform thesame determination.

FIG. 2 is a process diagram 200 illustrating an example method ofdetermining whether one or more communication messages are relevant toan ego device.

At block 210, a first device obtains environment information inproximity to the first device. The first device may be a mobile device100 (e.g. a vehicle, a smartphone, etc.) or wireless infrastructure(e.g. an access point 115, base station 110, road station unit (RSU),etc).

The environment information may be, in a non-exhaustive list and merelyfor illustrative purposes, one or more images from one or more imagesensors, one or more ultrasound data from one or more ultrasonicsensors, one or more radar data from one or more radars, one or moreLiDAR data from one or more lidar sensors, information from a radiofrequency (RF) source, one or more real-world traffic models (RTM) orany combination thereof.

The RTM may include device map information that indicates one or moreposition information for each device and one or more deviceidentification for particular devices in the area. For example, thedevice map information may include a specific vehicle that includesabsolute coordinates for the vehicle and the vehicle's license plate asan identifier.

In one embodiment, the device map information may also include thereceiving device's (e.g. reporting device's, ego device) position. Theposition may be absolute coordinates (e.g. latitude and longitude);cross streets; visible base station, access points, RSUs; recentlypassed intersections; intersections or areas (e.g. parking lots,driveways, etc); lane position (e.g. what lane the vehicle is on);pedestrian paths; bicycle paths; relative position information withrespect to the first device, or any combination thereof.

Position information at a specified time may be ranging (e.g. distancerelative to subject vehicle at some time) and/or orientation. The term“relative pose” is also used to refer to the position and orientation ofa vehicle relative to a current position of a subject vehicle. The term“relative pose” may refer to a 6 Degrees-of-Freedom (DoF) pose of anobject (e.g. target vehicle) relative to a frame of reference centeredon a current position of a subject (e.g. subject vehicle). The termrelative pose pertains to both the position (e.g. X, Y, Z coordinates)and orientation (e.g. roll, pitch, and yaw). The coordinate system maybe centered: (a) on the subject vehicle, or (b) on image sensor(s)obtaining images of the target vehicles). In addition, because vehicularmotion on roads is typically planar (i.e. the vertical motion isconstrained) over short distances, the pose may also be expressed, insome instances, in lesser degrees of freedom (e.g. 3 DoF). Lowering thedegrees of freedom available may facilitate computations of targetvehicle distance, target vehicle relative pose, and other positionparameters related to the target vehicle.

The one or more position information may comprise range, orientation,range angle, RF characteristics, absolute coordinates, velocity,position uncertainty, confidence level, position measurements or anycombination thereof.

For example, the position information may include a range, whichindicates a distance from the ego device or another device (e.g. arelative position). This may be expressed in any unit and/or anyresolution. For example, it may be expressed as meters, centimeters,inches, etc.

The position information may comprise an orientation. For example, thereporting device may report the orientation of the object or measureddevice relative to the reporting device and/or it may provide anabsolute orientation (e.g. relative to magnetic north).

In an embodiment, the position information may comprise a vector thatincludes a range and a range angle. The vector may be relative to theego device, an object or another device. For example, the vector may berelative to a billboard along a highway.

In an example, the position information may comprise RF characteristics.The RF characteristics may comprise signal strength, round trip time,time difference of arrival, doppler shift or any combination thereof.

In an example, the position information may comprise absolutecoordinates. The absolute coordinates may be in latitude, longitudeand/or elevation. The absolute coordinates may be Cartesian coordinates.

The terms “Doppler shift,” or “Doppler frequency shift,” or “Dopplereffect,” pertain to an observed change in frequency of a received signal(e.g. at a receiver) relative to the frequency of the transmitted signal(e.g. by a transmitter) on account of relative motion between thereceiver and the transmitter. Doppler measurements may be used todetermine range rate between a subject vehicle (e.g. receiver of V2Vcommunications) and a target vehicle (e.g. transmitter of V2Vcommunications). Range rate pertains to the rate at which the range ordistance between the subject vehicle and target vehicle changes oversome time period. Because nominal frequency bands for V2X, cellular, andother communications are known, the Doppler shift may be determined andused to calculate range rate and other motion related parameters.

The position information may also include position locationcharacteristics, such as position uncertainty and/or confidence level.For example, position uncertainty may include horizontal dilution ofprecision. The confidence level may indicate the confidence the egodevice may have in the position estimate, the technology used to makethe measurement or any combination thereof.

The device identification may comprise a globally unique identifier, alocally unique identifier, a proximity unique identifier, a relativelyunique identifier, one or more device identification characteristics orany combination thereof.

A globally unique identifier may include a globally unique licenseplate, a license plate with a region identifier, a medium access control(MAC) address, vehicle identification information (VIN) and/or someother identifier. The region identifier may indicate where the licenseplate identifier was issued thereby making it globally unique. Forexample, a license plate “5LOF455” may have been issued in California,so the license plate with the region identifier of California resultedin a globally unique identifier.

A locally unique identifier may include a license plate, a VIN, or someother identifier. A locally unique identifier is capable of being usedagain in a different region. For example, a license plate identifier,such as “5LOF455”, may be unique within California, but it can also berepeated in a different region, such as Washington. The region may be ofany size or shape. For example, the region may be a continent, country,state, province, county, zip code, neighborhood, street, cross streets,etc.

A proximity unique identifier may be a unique identifier within adistance and/or time threshold. For example, a device may report anearby vehicle that is likely to be unique within a hundred meters. Asan example, a device may report a nearby vehicle that is likely to beunique within thirty seconds. The distance threshold and the timethreshold may be of any unit and/or resolution.

A relatively unique identifier may be a unique identifier for a deviceas determined by the ego device. For example, a wireless road side unit(RSU) may communicate with multiple vehicles and assign them a unique IPaddress while they are in communication with the RSU, so the devices mayhave a relatively unique identifier (e.g. IP address).

In one embodiment, the device identifier may include one or more sets ofdevice characteristics. A set of device characteristics may comprisemake, model, color of the device, device year, device trim, one or moredimensions of the device, shape of the device, one or more capabilitiesof the device (e.g., turning radius), one or more observablecharacteristics of the device, software type or version of the ADASsystem, trip related information (e.g. passenger count, currentlocation, destination), vehicle behavior (vector acceleration, velocity,location, braking status, turn light status, reverse lights status,etc.), other information (e.g., urgency code—such as late to work,vehicle use code such as newspaper delivery, garbage truck,sightseeing/tourism, taxi, etc.), or any combination thereof. A set ofdevice characteristics may includes a single device characteristics(e.g. color, make, model, etc.).

For example, the observing device may identify a nearby subject vehicleas being a Honda Civic and determine it is the only Honda Civic nearbyor within line of sight of the ego device. The ego device may then use“Honda Civic” as a device identifier.

The observing device may identify two nearby vehicles that are bothHonda Civics, but may use the color of the vehicle to furtherdifferentiate it (e.g. one vehicle is black, and the other vehicle issilver).

In another example, there may be two vehicles that are both HondaCivics, but can be differentiated based on their year and/or trim. Forexample, one Honda Civic may be a 2018 model, but the other Honda Civicmay be a 2005 model. In one embodiment, the form factor for a vehiclemay be similar across multiple years, so instead of providing a specificyear, it may provide a range of potential years.

Additionally, the color of the year may be used to identify or narrowdown the potential year of manufacture (or selling year) that could beassociated with the vehicle. For example, beige may be a color choicefor a first year, but it is unavailable for the next three years forthat form factor.

In one embodiment, there may be slight changes to the form factor thatmay be used to identify the year of manufacture (or selling year). Forexample, there may be slight tweaks to the rims/hubcaps, lights, etc.

The device trim may also be used to identify the device. For example, afirst vehicle may be the same make and model of a second vehicle;however, the first vehicle may be standard trim, but the second vehiclemay be a luxury trim, which may be indicated based on various factors,such as the headlights, roof configuration (e.g. panoramic roof, crossbars, etc.), spoiler, manufacturer's markings, etc.

The device dimension(s) may be used to identify a nearby vehicle, suchas width, height, length, form factor (e.g. vehicle type), 3D model ofthe vehicle, or any combination thereof. For example, there may be twosimilar vehicles, such as they have the same make and/or model, but onevehicle may have been modified (e.g. tow package) that results in ithaving a different dimension versus the other vehicle. The differentdimensions may then be used to distinguish the two vehicles. This may bea temporary distinguishing identifier until the two vehicles are nolonger in proximity or until the temporary distinguishing identifier isno longer needed.

The RTM may also include pedestrians, bicyclists, signs, roadconditions, traffic lights, etc. It is important to note that sometraffic lights may include functionality that enables it to be a RSU orserver, in that case then the traffic light would be included as adevice, but a traffic light that is unable to communicate with nearbydevices and/or sense nearby devices then those would be classified undera non-device; this is similar for these other non-devices, such aspedestrians, bicycles, etc. In one embodiment, if the pedestrian and/orbicyclist is carrying a device that is identified by the observingdevice, that is aiding in the generation of the RTM, then the carrieddevice may be reported as a device, but it may also report thenon-device (e.g. pedestrian) and it may provide a device identifierand/or the non-device identifier (e.g. pedestrian's color shirt).

According to an aspect of the disclosure, the non-device information mayalso include characteristics. For example, an ego device may determinecharacteristics associated with traffic lights at an intersection, suchas the traffic light state (e.g. red, yellow, green), light intensity,whether it is blinking or not, etc. These characteristics can beprovided the device map information and may be provided in the RTM so asecond device may make decisions based on this information. For example,if the traffic light has been green for a minute, the RTM indicatesvehicles near the intersection have been moving for the last minute, butthe car in front of the second vehicle is not then the second vehiclemay use determine, via its behavior/route planning (which may alsoinclude motion and path planning) component, that the second vehicle tomove into another lane. Additionally, this information may be providedto third parties, such as operators of the traffic lights (e.g. cities,municipalities) for various purposes, such as but not limited todetermine when traffic lights need to be replaced, when they areunreliable, etc.

The RTM may indicate the capabilities and/or shortcomings of theobserving device, that aided in generating the RTM, as part of thedevice map information and/or separately. For example, the observingdevice, may be a vehicle, and it may indicate that it only has frontfacing cameras, so it is unable to detect nearby devices that are not infront of it.

In another example, the observing device may indicate it has frontfacing cameras, GNSS, ultrasound sensors around the device and aforward-facing radar system. In this scenario, this indicates that theego device may have a reliable uncertainty value associated with itslocation (because of the GNSS receiver), but that it may only seedevices that are in front of it because the ultrasound sensor mayrequire close proximity to detect other nearby devices.

The observing device may indicate one or more areas that it is able tosense and/or one or more areas where it is able to identify nearbydevices and/or non-devices. This may be indicated based on cardinaldirections, intercardinal directions, angles relative to a cardinal orintercardinal direction (e.g. north), etc. For example, if the observingdevice has a front facing camera and a back facing camera, it mayindicate it is able to sense or identify nearby devices and/ornon-devices from north-west to north east and south. This informationmay be indicated in the device map information and/or separately.

In one embodiment, the observing device may indicate one or more areasthat it is not able to sensor and/or one or more areas where it is notable to identify nearby devices and/or non-device and may be similarlyperformed as described above and throughout the specification. The RTMmay already have information relating to the reliability of the devicemap information as provided by the observing device, or the RTM may havereliability determined by the observing device. The observing device mayprovide reliability information related to the device's capabilities.For example, if the observing device determines that the forward facingcamera intermittently is unable to receive image data then the egodevice may determine a reliability score based on when it is unable toreceive image data, whether it is able to receive image data currently,whether other sensors detect an object that has not or was notidentified in the image data, etc. In another example, the observingdevice may determine that the camera image data in unable to detect anyobjects during some weather conditions (e.g. rain, snow, fog, etc.) ortiming related to weather conditions (e.g. within the first thirtyminutes of the turning on the device when the weather condition ispresent), so the observing device may set a low reliability score forthe device's camera capabilities. This information may be indicated inthe device map information and/or separately.

This RTM may be provided to the ego device 100 by a server 140 (orsimilar, such as a gNodeB, RSU, etc.), one or more nearby devices or acombination of both.

The one or more sensor data, such as images, ultrasound data, LiDARdata, etc. may be obtained by the ego device 100, one or more nearbydevice, one or more nearby infrastructure devices (e.g. RSU, trafficlights, etc.), or any combination thereof.

The information from an RF source may include position information aboutthe RF source, a relative range to the RF source by the first device, orboth. The RF source may be an internet of everything (TOT) device, suchas a marker. These markers may be placed along the road and/or may beplaced on, in proximity to, or integrated with signs, traffic lights,guardrails, traffic lights, etc. The RF source may also be the RSU.

At block 220, a mobile device 100 and/or a server 140 receives one ormore communication messages from a second device, wherein the messagesinclude relevance criteria, wherein the relevance criteria indicates oneor more devices, one or more sets of device characteristics, one or morelanes, one or more intersections or areas, one or more pedestrian pathsor bicycle paths, one or more signal characteristics from the seconddevice or any combination thereof. The one or more communicationmessages may be received via a managed network, unmanaged network, or ahybrid managed network. The one or more communication messages may alsobe received via a point-to-point messaging, broadcast/multicastmessaging or a combination. The one or more communication messages maybe a V2V, V2I or V2X messages. The relevance criteria, from the seconddevice, indicates to whom the communication message is relevant to (e.g.specific devices, areas/zones, etc.). This is difference fromenvironment information, which generated by the first device or providedto the first device, wherein the environmental information is determinedby a non-communication component (e.g. video/images, auditory,GNSS/sensors, radar, LiDAR, etc.).

The one or more communication messages may be from one or more vehicles,servers, infrastructures, traffic lights, RSUs or any combinationthereof. For example, one or more communication messages may be receivedfrom a traffic light indicating which vehicles may proceed through anintersection or vehicles traveling in a particular direction may beallowed to proceed for a certain duration. In another example, the oneor more communication messages may indicate that a vehicle is intendingto merge into a particular lane.

The relevance criteria in the one or more communication messages mayindicate one or more location parameters, one or more sets of devicecharacteristics, one or more time parameters, one or more signalcharacteristics or any combination thereof. The location parameters mayindicate one or more lanes, one or more directions, cross streets,latitude/longitude, entrance/exit for a highway, one or moreintersections or areas (e.g. driveways, parking lots, etc.), one or morepedestrian paths, one or more bicycle paths, one or more streets,location with a distance or time threshold, relativedistance/orientation to objects, or any combination thereof. Forexample, a vehicle may indicate there is an emergency so all vehiclesthat are within ten miles of a particular location going north bound inthe third lane should move over so the vehicle can get through traffic.

The one or more sets of device characteristics may indicate form factorof a vehicle, make, model, color, year, trim, unique features, vehicletype or any combination thereof. The one or more device characteristicsmay indicate who the transmitting device intends to communication with,to or about. For example, the transmitting device may identify a vehiclethat is about to get into an accident, so it may transmit information tothe vehicle or to nearby vehicle to help mitigate damage from theaccident.

The one or more time parameters may indicate a time or time period whenthe messages are relevant, a time or time period when the messages areno longer relevant, a time duration when the messages are or are notrelevant or any combination thereof. For example, the second device mayindicate the message is only applicable at 9:00 AM PST, from 9:00 AM PSTto 10:00 AM PST, for ten seconds from when the message was sent and/orreceived, etc.

The one or more signal characteristics may indicate the signal-to-noiseratio (SNR) threshold(s), a distance/range threshold, or any combinationthereof. For example, the second device may indicate the message is onlyrelevant if the SNR threshold is above −60 decibels relative tomilliwatt (dBm), such as −30 dBm. In another example, the second devicemay indicate the message is relevant as long as the first device iswithin five meters of the second device.

In one embodiment, these relevance criteria, as listed above, may becombined in any manner (e.g. one or more signal characteristics with oneor more time parameters). For example, the second device may indicate inthe messages that it is relevant for as long as the first device sees anSNR from the second device above −40 dBm, but when it drops below the−40 dBm threshold then the message may still be relevant for tenseconds. It may also indicate the time duration restarts from zero ifthe SNR returns above −40 dBm but later drops below that threshold.

The one or more communication messages may also include additionalinformation, such as intention(s) of the transmitting device (or thesecond device), issue(s), requests (e.g. vehicle platoon requests).These are discussed later in the specification.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, the relevance criteria mayindicate specifically which devices the messages are intended. Forexample, the second device may transmit the messages and in therelevance criteria may identify the first device as the intended device.

The relevance criteria may indicate a specific device but include thatthe transmitted message is relevant to any device that has line of sightto the that specific device (may also indicate the message is relevantto the specific device). For example, if the second device istransmitting a message that indicates a blue truck is causing a problem(e.g. running a red light, about to cause a collision) then it mayindicate in the relevance criteria that any device that has line ofsight to the truck should watch out. Line of sight may be determinedbased on image/video data from one or more cameras, may be determinedvia a communication link, radar, ultrasound, LiDAR, etc.

The one or more communication messages may include vehicleconditions/state information, autonomous functionality capabilities,autonomous functionality currently engaged by the vehicle, vehiclesensor readings, vehicle historical sensor readings, vehicleenvironmental readings, vehicle historical environmental readings,destination(s), potential future paths, current paths, passengerinformation, RTM or any combination thereof.

The one or more communication messages may include the transmittingdevice's conditions/state information, such as normal operations, sensorerrors, braking errors, autonomous functionality issues, etc. It mayinclude information more specific to receiving device, such astransmitting device needs additional spacing between it and othervehicles because of an error condition.

The message(s) may similarly include either by itself or in addition tothe other information, information about nearby devices. For example, ifthe transmitting device detects a potential issue with a nearby device,it may notify other devices about the nearby device.

The one or more communication messages may include information about thevehicle's autonomous functionality capabilities. For example, it mayinclude the vehicle is capable of radar, ultrasound, camera, GNSS, etc.It may also include positions of where these sensors are located. It mayinclude firmware or software versions. It may indicate algorithms names,versions, capabilities, etc. It may also indicate the framework that wasused in generating the algorithms or the machine learning inference,such as TensorFlow, Caffee2, etc. It may indicate the autonomous levelcapabilities, such as Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4 or Level 5. Itmay also indicate which standards body or governing entity it is usingfor those classifications (or it may be standardized in all vehicles inthat jurisdiction to indicate they are all using Social of AutomotiveEngineers (SAE) definitions for the communication standard that is beingused, such as V2X. Similarly, if this information is obtained from othernearby devices, this information may be aggregated by the transmittingdevice and transmitted to nearby devices so each device does not have tocollate this information by itself. This collated information may alsobe provided to a server, RSU or network edge device so nearby devicescan retrieve or be provided with this information.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, the one or more communicationmessages may indicate what autonomous functionality is engaged, in theprocess of being engaged, may be planned to be engaged, may potentiallybe engaged or any combination thereof. For example, it may indicate thatit is being manually driven, but dynamic cruise control and automatedemergency braking is engaged. It may indicate that the lane keepingfeature is enabled. In one embodiment, the message(s) may indicate thelimitations of the engaged features, such as for lane keeping it mayindicate it will only keep the vehicle in the lane up to a thresholdamount (e.g. it can readjust the vehicle into the lane after comingclose to the edge or cross the lane marker, but only for a thresholdnumber of times).

The one or more communication messages may indicate the vehicle's sensorreadings or vehicle's indicators based on the sensor readings. Forexample, it may provide the vehicle's accelerometer data or it mayindicate that the vehicle just experience black ice because it wassliding over a section of the road (e.g. road condition information). Itmay indicate engine problems, braking problems, etc. It may alsoindicate the engine response/performance, braking response/performance,steering response/performance, etc. Similarly, it may provide historicalsensor readings or historical vehicle indicators based on the sensorreadings at that time.

The one or more communication messages may indicate the vehicle's sensorreadings about the environment external to the vehicle or the vehicle'sindicators based on the environmental sensors. For example, the vehiclemay have obtain environmental measurement in proximity to the vehicle(e.g. humidity, CO2 levels, water detector/levels, CO levels, etc).

In one embodiment, the vehicle may determine information based on thesensor measurements. In another example, the vehicle may obtain sensormeasurements from the inertial measurement unit (IMU) to determine theroad conditions. If the IMU experiences a sudden, short drop then thedevice or vehicle may classify that location as have a pothole. It isimportant to note that these road conditions may be one or morealgorithms to determine the various road conditions and/or it may usethe sensor measurement data in conjunction with an inference model thatwas developed with machine learning or deep learning to determine orinfer the road condition.

The one or more communication messages may indicate one or moredestinations, potential paths, planned paths of the device or anycombination thereof. The device may indicate destinations that is tryingto navigate to current or at a future time. The device may indicateroutes or paths that the device may navigate or what the devicecurrently plans to navigate. For example, the device may indicate whichlane it is currently in and when or if it plans to change lanes. Inanother example, the vehicle may predict how a driver of the vehiclewill progress along a path or through an area, such as an intersection,based on the drivers historical driving patterns, historical patternsthrough a similar or the same area, etc. In these assistance systems,the vehicle may provide a guidance to a driver about the vehicle'sprojected path, but the vehicle may provide one or more communicationmessages when a driver deviates from the projected path and/or mayprovide an updated path based on the driver's actions.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, the one or more communicationmessages may indicate passenger information. It may indicate number ofpassengers, passenger positions, characteristics about the passengers,etc. For example, it may indicate a passenger is a baby in an infant carseat, a passenger with a mobility disability, etc. It may indicate wherepassengers are located within the vehicle. For example, in one use casethe passenger position information may be used when a passenger istrying to take a picture near famous landmark so a nearby device may usethis information to avoid blocking the line of sight of the passenger.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, the one or more communicationmessages may indicate RTM information that the device has generated,modified or received. This may allow nearby devices to quickly accessthis information instead of having to contact a remote server, an RSUthat is further away than the device, or another device (such as an RSU)that may not have pertinent information to a requesting device or adevice in proximity to the transmitting device.

The one or more communication messages may be from an RSU, server, orinfrastructure to a vehicle, bicyclist, pedestrians, etc. that indicateswhich device or user type may proceed through an intersection or area,which lane and/or direction is allowed to proceed, etc. For example, theRSU may indicate that vehicles and pedestrians are allowed to proceednorthbound but vehicles attempting to take a right may wait even if theyare in the northbound lanes to avoid collisions with pedestrians thatare proceeding northbound. This information may be provided by or inaddition to a traffic light and/or cross walk signs that indicates whenvehicles and/or pedestrians may proceed or when they should stop.

The one or more communication messages may provide timing informationfor how long a particular lane or direction will be allowed to proceedthrough the intersection. This also applies if this is being schedule ona per vehicle or group of vehicles basis. This information may be usefulto the receiving device so they can get a more accurate estimate of timeto destination, improving route planning, crowdsourcing this informationto provide to other devices, when a vehicle should adjust their speed(e.g. slow down because the intersection is going to indicate thevehicles should heading in that direction will be instructed to stop intwo seconds) based on this information, etc. This information may alsobe used to be compared against historical and/or predicted times tofurther improve the historical and/or predicted models. The one or morecommunication messages may be provided by or on behalf of the trafficlight and/or crosswalk sign to indicate planned downtimes, statusinformation, etc.

At block 230, the first device (e.g. mobile device 100 and/or a server140) determines whether the one or more communication messages arerelevant to the first device based on the relevance criteria and theenvironment information. For example, the first device may determine therelevance criteria is applicable to vehicles in the second lane and thefirst device (or nearby devices) may capture one or more images anddetermine it is in the second lane, so it may determine the one or morecommunication messages are relevant to the first device. In anotherexample, the first device may obtain the RTM and the one or morecommunication messages may indicate criteria that specifies all devicesin the second device's current lane, so the first device may use the RTMto determine which lane the transmitting device is currently in and mayalso use the RTM to determine whether the first device is in the samelane as the second device to determine the relevance of the one or morecommunication messages.

The first device may determine whether the one or more communicationmessages are relevant by obtaining one or more device characteristicscorresponding to the first device and comparing the first device'scharacteristics to the one or more sets of device characteristics in therelevance criteria. For example, if the one or more communicationmessages have relevance criteria that indicates it is relevant to a“White Ford Bronco” and the first device is a “White Ford Bronco”, thenthe first device may deem the messages relevant to it. The first devicemay obtain one or more device characteristics corresponding to itselffrom one or more sources, such as but not limited to, memory, OEMdatabase (e.g. make/model/year lookup), live image data from nearbydevices, historical image data from nearby device, etc.

The first device may determine whether the one or more communicationmessages are relevant to the first device by comparing the firstdevice's location to area or zone indicated by the relevance criteria inthe one or more communication messages. For example, if the first devicedetermines it is in the middle northbound lane and the relevancecriteria is for the middle northbound lane then the one or morecommunication messages are relevant to the first device. The firstdevice's location may be an absolute location, landmark based (e.g.cross streets, lane markers, street signs, buildings, etc.), a relativelocation, etc.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, the first device and/or otherdevices may validate or verify the messages are coming from the seconddevice by comparing the signal characteristics to the where the seconddevice is supposedly located. For example, the signal characteristics ofthe messages may indicate a time of departure and that may be used todetermine a distance based on the time of arrival and time of departureand this distance will be compared against the first device's locationto determine whether the second device location is comparable (e.g.within the distance range from the first device). Another way ofvalidating the device is to see if other nearby devices that are inproximity to the second device are also hearing the same message fromthe second device. The other nearby device may or may be requested tocapture images of the second device to confirm it is the vehicle in theRTM that the first device believes the second device to be. This isfurther described throughout the specification, but it is important tonote that this validation/verification may occur at various points inthe process and may be done multiple times in the process. Additionally,this validation process may be done periodically, such as platooning.

At block 240, the first device (e.g. mobile device 100 and/or server140) may perform one or more operations in response to the determinationof whether the one or more communication messages are relevant to thefirst device. The one or more operations may comprises transmitting aresponse to the second device, establishing a direct communication linkwith the second device, setting a pertinence level associated with thesecond device, performing one or more actions, displaying or providingthe one or more communication messages to one or more users associatedwith the first device, generating one or more notifications based on theone or more communication messages, requesting one or more actions to beperformed by the second device or any combination thereof.

In one embodiment, the one or more operations may comprises transmittinga response to the second device. The response to the second device maybe an acknowledgement message (ACK) or a negative acknowledgementmessage (NACK). The response may be solicited, meaning the second devicerequested a response, such as ACK or NACK, or may be unsolicited.

The one or more communication messages, transmitted by the seconddevice, may indicate whether or not the transmitting device wants thereceiving devices to transmit ACK or NACK. In one embodiment, the seconddevice may request that all receiving devices respond whether the one ormore communication messages have been received, whether the one or morecommunication messages are relevant to the receiving device or anycombination thereof. The second device may request that only devicesthat determine the one or more communication messages are relevant tothem should respond with an ACK or NACK.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, a receiving device, such asthe first device, may be requested to transmit an ACK or NACK if itdetermines that the one or more communication messages are relevant;however, the receiving device may determine they only meet a portion ofthe criteria but above a threshold so they may transmit a NACK messageto indicate they do not believe they are relevant even though only ACKmessages are requested. For example, a receiving device may determinethey match the form factor, make, model, year, trim but they do notmatch the color, so they may transmit a NACK message to the transmittingdevice. In a continued example, the receiving device may determine theyare the only (or one of a few) vehicle that appears to match most of thecriteria in the one or more communication messages so they may use thatto send a NACK message (even if it is not solicited). In one embodiment,the NACK message may include the reason for the rejection (e.g. only metnine out of ten criteria). According to an aspect of the disclosure, thedevices may send NACKs when it is unable to get the entire message (e.g.decoding issues, etc). It may also be used when there are errorsgenerated by the running program(s), such as an inference thatmisidentifies a device then the device may respond with a NACK that itdoes not see that device and/or it is not that device. It may also besent when the received device believes that the transmitting device is aspoof or being spoofed, and it may also send a message to thetransmitting device or other nearby devices to validate or determinewhether the transmitting device is being spoofed.

The second device (e.g. transmitting device) may receive the NACKmessage and may transmit a query message to the first device (e.g.receiving device) to get more information on why the first device sent aNACK. The query message may ask for a rejection reason that may be avalue that is associated with a predetermined response (e.g. zero maycorrespond to most criteria matched but not all, one may correspond tonot the correct make, etc.). It may also include OEM predeterminedresponse, jurisdiction specific predetermined responses, etc.

The first device may set a pertinence level associated with the seconddevice based on the determination of whether the one or morecommunication messages are relevant to the first device. For example, ifthe first device determines that the one or more communication messagesare relevant to the first device then it may increase the pertinencelevel for the second device (and if not relevant then it may lower thepertinence level).

The pertinence level may be used to determine which device's messagesshould be processed first, because those devices are presumably nearbythe receiving device so they may perform an action the receiving deviceshould handle quickly (e.g. to avoid an accident, coordinate actions,etc.).

The first device may perform one or more actions in response to thedetermination that the one or more communication messages are relevantto it, such as wait to proceed through an intersection, speed up,request additional information from the second device, perform one ormore vehicular maneuvers, coordinate with the second device and/or oneor more other devices, communicate with the second device, etc. or anycombination thereof.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, the first device may determinewhether to coordinate with the second device. This may be one of theactions described above or it may be another action in addition to theperforming one or more actions described above. The first device maydetermine whether to coordinate with the second device based on one ormore device characteristics of the second device and the environmentinformation. The one or more device characteristics of the second devicemay be provided in the one or more message. The first device maydetermine that the second device is in the same lane and in closeproximity so they can form a platoon and coordinate their actions tooptimize the spacing between the vehicles and reduce drag on thevehicles.

In another example, the first device and second device may coordinate soone of the devices can merge into the other device's lane. This may bebased on proximity, whether there is spacing for the vehicle to fit infront or behind the other vehicle, whether the vehicle can speed up orslow down to create a space of the merging vehicle, etc. It may useother factors such as whether the potentially merging vehicle is beingmanually driven vs. autonomously driven, number of passengers,destination, etc.

In one embodiment, the first device may determine whether to communicatewith the second device based on the one or more device characteristicsof the second device and the environment information. This may occursimilarly to the description above about coordinating between twodevices.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, the first device may determinewhether to perform a vehicular maneuver based the one or more message.This may occur in response to the determination to coordinate and/orcommunicate with the second device, it may occur after the determinationof that the one or more communication messages are relevant or afterperforming the one or more actions. The first device may use therequested move or the planned action of the second device to determinewhether or not the first device should perform a vehicle maneuver. Forexample, if the second device is attempting a lane merge into the firstdevice's lane it may use identify that the second device is going toattempt a lane merge behind the first device and the first device maydetermine there is sufficient space for the second device so the firstdevice may determine it may maintain its current plan. If it determinesthat the second device needs more room to merge, then the first devicemay speed up (e.g. vehicle maneuver). It is important to note thatvehicle maneuver may include one or more speed changes, one or moredirections changes/one or more routes or any combination thereof.

In one embodiment, the first device may request additional informationfrom the second device and/or one or more other nearby devices. Forexample, the first device may determine or may be configured to furthervalidate which device is providing relevant messages. The first devicemay use this information or the response to this request to determinewhether the second device is not being spoofed or providing falseinformation. The first device may request that the second device captureimages of the first device or other devices, perform one or more drivingpatterns, perform visual communications, emit an auditory sound (orparticular sound), road surface characteristics, RF characteristics, orany combination thereof.

The one or more images of the first device or other devices may provideperspective information to indicate the position and/or orientation ofthe device. This position and/or orientation of the device may be usedto validate whether the second device is the same device that the firstdevice is communicating with over an RF communication link and/ordetermine that the second device is a non-spoofed device. In oneembodiment, the one or more images may be used to determine whether thesecond device is within line-of-sight of the first device. The firstdevice may request one or more other devices to capture one or moreimages of the second device to validate whether the second device is thesame device that the first device is communicating with over an RFcommunication link. This may similarly done by the second device toverify the first device.

The second device may be requested to perform one or more drivingpatterns, such as drifting or moving to a particular lane, turning,braking, stopping, slowing down, moving, any sequence of one or more ofthese actions or any combination thereof. For example, it may requestthat the second device perform three light and short braking burstswithin a particular time period to validate that the device in the RFcommunication link is the same as what is seen in the environmentinformation.

This is similar done for auditory and visual information. It may requesta horn honk, duration, sequence, audio sound type/noise, volume,frequency, etc. For visual communication, it may request visible lightcommunication (e.g. through brake lights, headlights, etc.), it may askfor a particular pattern, duration, intensity, frequency, etc.

The first device may request road surface characteristics. For example,if the second device and first device are in the same lane it mayrequest road surface characteristics over a particular span of road.This may be accelerometer data, radar, lidar, ground penetrating radar,etc. that would indicate the road surface and it would be compared towhat the first device has seen for the same span of road. This may beused to validate that the second device is the same device that thefirst device is communicating with over the RF communication link.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, the first device may use theresponse by the second device to determine whether or not the seconddevice is a non-spoofed device. For example, the first device mayrequest that the second device change their brake lights at a particularfrequency in a particular pattern, and if the second device performsthese actions and this is captured by the first device or a thirddevice, then the first device can determine that the second device isnon-spoofed, meaning the second device that is communicating over acommunication link with the first device is the same device that thefirst device or a third device can identify through other means (e.g.camera, radar, ultrasound, LiDAR, etc.).

The first device may establish a direct link with the second device. Theone or more communication messages may be transmitted via abroadcast/multicast message, but after the first device determines thatone or more communication messages may be relevant to it, it may thenestablish a direct link (e.g. point-to-point messaging) with the seconddevice.

The direct link establishment may involve the first device transmittingconfiguration information to the second device, such as channelparameters, power levels, encryption keys, etc. The second device maysend an ACK or NACK message in response to these parameters and/or therequest to establish a direct link. In one embodiment, the second devicemay determine based on its proximity to its destination, duration lefton the road, distance until switching to leaving that road, speed ofitself relative to the other vehicle, speed of the vehicle, speed of thefirst device or any combination thereof whether or not to accept therequest to establish a direct communication link.

The second device may accept the direct communication request by sendingan ACK message and/or establishing the link using one or more of theparameters provided by the first device. For example, if the seconddevice determines there is too much interference (e.g. above aninterference threshold) on a particular channel or frequency, it maysend a message to the first device to use a second channel or frequencyprovided by the second device instead of the first channel or frequencyrequested by the first device.

The direct link may enable more efficient communication in somescenarios, such as coordinated driving actions (e.g. vehicle platoonmaneuvers, etc.) or specific communication purposes. The direct link mayalso be used to provide encryption information (e.g. keys, certificates,etc.) so data may be encrypted over a broadcast channel but still allowit to be protected between two specific devices (e.g. first device andsecond device, but prevent a third device from receiving the encryptedcontent).

It is important to note that, in at least one embodiment, the directlink may be established after the first device has validated the seconddevice (and vice versa). The validation process may be the request foradditional information, as indicated earlier in the specification. Thisis an iterative process, so the first device may request specificadditional information from the second device so the first device canensure that the second device is not being spoofed or that the seconddevice is a non-spoofed device (e.g. it is who they say they are) and/orto establish a confidence level with the second device. Once one or bothdevices have validated each other, then the direct link establishmentmay begin. In one embodiment, the validation may occur periodically orquasi-periodically after the direct link has been established.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, the direct link may beestablished without a validation process, such as emergency scenarios.

In one embodiment, the validation process may not require additionalinformation from the second device, instead the RTM may be used by thefirst device for validation purposes. For example, the first device canuse the RTM to determine where the second device is in proximity to thefirst device. It may use the RTM to determine a range and compare thatto the range measurements it is performing with the second device. Ifthe ranges are comparable within a threshold level, then the firstdevice can determine that the second device appears to be who they arecommunicating with.

In one embodiment, this may occur over a period of time to adjust theconfidence level that the second device is who they indicate that theyare. For example, if the range measurement does not correspond to theRTM at a later time period, then the confidence level may drop. If theycontinue to correspond for several minutes then the confidence level mayincrease.

In one embodiment, the one or more communication messages may beprovided or displayed to one or more user devices that are associatedwith the first device. For example, if the first device is a user'ssmartphone then the one or more communication messages may be displayedto the user via the smartphone's display or another display, via a wiredor wireless connection. In another example, if the first device is avehicle, the one or more communication messages may be displayed on oneor more displays within the first device. Similarly, the communicationmessage(s) may provide other notifications or additional alerts, such asauditory notification, haptic feedback, etc.

In one example, the one or more communication messages may be providedto a user's smartphone or other user device that is within the firstdevice, which may be a vehicle. This may be routed to the user's devicebased on whether or not they have a navigation session running (e.g.Google® Maps is running on the user's smartphone so the communicationmessages may be routed to that device).

In one embodiment, the one or more communication messages are providedto every device within the vehicle, but the device determines whether ornot to provide a notification based on the one or more communicationmessages. This may be done based on whether the device is running anavigation application, whether the device is paired or connected to thevehicle's auditory system (e.g. speaker system), whether the device ispaired to one or more displays associated with the vehicle, thelikelihood that the user will use their device for a navigation session(or already has within a time duration), or any combination thereof.

The one or more communication messages may be used to generate one ormore notifications based on the communication message(s). For example,if the second device provides one or more communication messages thatindicates a hazard in the right shoulder but the first device is in amiddle lane then the hazard may not be relevant to it; however, a newissue may arise where vehicles from the right lane attempt to merge orwill merge into the middle lane to avoid the hazard on the right lane.In this scenario, the first device may provide a notification to thedriver, users in the vehicle or user devices associated with the firstdevice. This notification may be generated based on an a-prioriassociation for common occurrences (e.g. lane merges because of hazards,pothole detection, flooding, etc.), historical information where thefirst device has determined a correlation between two or more events,crowdsourcing information or correlations based on the crowdsourcinginformation, or any combination thereof.

The one or more communication messages from the second device mayindicate what actions should be or may be performed by the first device,the one or more communication messages may indicate an event/issue orpotential event/issue that may be affected and/or caused by the firstdevice, the one or more message may indicate an intention of the seconddevice, or any combination thereof.

The one or more communication messages from the second device mayindicate what actions are requested of the first device (e.g. vehicularmaneuver, etc.). The first device may determine whether or not toperform those actions and may notify the second device accordingly (e.g.ACK, NACK or may simply perform the action). For example, the seconddevice may request that the first device speed up, and the first devicemay send an ACK message (to either acknowledge the message and/or toacknowledge it will perform the action). It may then speed up or notifythe vehicular control to speed up.

The requested actions may also indicate a vehicle platoon request,vehicle dropout request, vehicle charging, parking, etc. For example,the second device may request to join the first device's platoon or toform a platoon, so both vehicles can coordinate driving actions for anoverlapping journey (e.g. several miles on a highway, destinations thatare similar/close in proximity/identical, etc.).

The request action may include whether the first device agrees withcoordinated driving with the second device. This may be similar to avehicle platoon request, but it may be a temporary action, a briefperiod of time, may need infrequent message exchanges, and/or may havelarger spacing between vehicles compared to platooning. In oneembodiment, the coordinated actions may be sent in a second set of oneor more communication messages after the first device has agreed (or thesecond device) to perform coordinated driving actions. The coordinatedactions may involve speed, vehicular movements, negotiation for spacingbetween vehicles, etc.

The one or more communication messages may indicate an event/issue orpotential event/issue that may be affected and/or caused by the firstdevice. For example, the first device (e.g. if it is a vehicle, or if itco-located with a vehicle) may have run a red light so the second devicemay indicate the first device should be watch out for a pedestrian thatmay be endanger of being hit by the first device/vehicle. In anotherexample, there may be third device that is driving erratically, so thesecond device may notify the first device to slow down or avoid being inclose proximity with the third device.

The one or more communication messages may indicate an intention of thesecond device, such as lane merge, pothole avoidance, requesting to movethrough an intersection, left turn, right turn, u turn, highwayentrance/exit, parking, emergency maneuver, etc. For example, the firstdevice may be moving in a perpendicular direction as the second deviceat an intersection, and the second device may indicate that it is goingto proceed through the intersection, so the first device may use thatinformation to determine when the first device can proceed through theintersection. In another example, the second device may indicate anintention to merge into a lane that includes the first device, so thefirst device may use that intention to determine whether to speed up orslow down.

FIG. 3 is an example process for notifying nearby devices of issues orintentions. At block 310, a device (e.g. mobile device 100 and/or server140) may determine one or more issues or one or more intentions. Forexample, a device may identify a vehicle that has run a red light (or isnot allowed to proceed through an intersection during that time period)so it may notify that vehicle to stop or be careful or it may notifynearby devices of this issue so they can be careful.

The device may also determine an issue with itself. For example, it maydetermine its brakes are failing, sensors are failing, accelerator isstuck, etc. The device may notify nearby devices that it is experiencingissues that it may not be able to correct immediately, so other nearbydevices are give the device more space or provide a path for the deviceso the device may use external forces to stop (e.g. rock/sand path,runaway truck ramp, etc.)

The device may determine or identify an issue with the road. Forexample, it may detect black ice on the road, notify nearby devicesaccordingly and may report it to a server and/or RSU so devices not incommunication range of the device may receive this warning as well. Thismay similarly be done for any other issue with the road, such asflooding, potholes, missing lane markers, etc.

The device may determine or detect an issue with one or more nearbydevices. The device may have form factor information and/or otherinformation about a nearby device, so if the nearby device does notcorrespond or conform to this information then the device may determinethere may be an issue. The device may have a classifier or detector forspecific issues, such as: mattress appears to be falling off, the ropesdo not appear to be holding the item, smoke is coming out of thevehicle, the car appears to be on fire, etc.

The device may also notify nearby devices of its intentions. Forexample, a device or more specifically its planning and control functioncomponent (PCF) may determine that the device should change lanes ormerge into another lane so the device may notify nearby devices of thisintention.

At block 320, the device may determine whether to provide one or moredirect notifications, one or more zone notifications or both. A directnotification indicates one or more other devices the messages areintended to be relevant towards. Similar to FIG. 1, may provide a uniqueidentifier (e.g. globally unique, locally unique, proximity unique,etc.), one or more device characteristics, etc. to indicate whether theone or more communication messages are relevant to them.

A zone notification may indicate an area or an area relative to thedevice, so the one or more communication messages are relevant to anyother device in the area. The zone notification may also indicate otherparameters to filter the one or more communication messages, such asdevice type, direction, etc. For example, it may indicate a zone ofdevices within fifteen meters of the device but it may also indicatethat the devices should be mobile devices (e.g. vehicles, pedestrians,etc.) and the devices should be traveling north or be crossing the northbound lanes (e.g. east to west or west to east).

The device may also send messages that include both direct notificationand zone notifications. For example, the device may indicate that itintends to change lanes so it may send a direct notification to the twovehicles it wishes to get in between, but it may also send a zonenotification to the lane beside the target lane it intends to merge intoto make sure vehicles in that lane don't also merge into the target laneat the same spot as the device at the same time as the device.

The device may determine whether to provide one or more directnotifications, one or more zone notifications or both based on the usecase scenarios, whether it was able to classify nearby device, or anycombination thereof. For example, it may provide a direct notificationfor lane changes/lane merges, highway entrance/exit, but it may alsoprovide zone notifications in those scenarios for added protection. Ifit identifies an issue that may affect a particular device, it mayprovide a direct notification to that device. In cases where it isunable to classify the device it may provide a zone notification so thedevice in the zone can be aware of the situation.

At block 330, the device determines whether to provide one or morebroadcast messages, one or more point-to-point messages or both. Thedevice may make this determination based on whether it needs to providea direct notification, zone notification or both; whether it hasidentified the radio frequency (RF) communications of the one or morenearby devices to which it intends to communicate; the notificationtype; or any combination thereof.

For example, if the device needs to communicate with a large number ofdevices it may send a broadcast message. In another scenario, if thedevice needs to provide an emergency notification (e.g. notificationtype) to a specific device then it may send a point-to-point message;however, if it has not been able to identify the RF communications tothe specific device then it would send it as a broadcast message.

At block 340, the device may transmit one or more notifications of oneor more determined issues or intentions based on the determination ofwhether to provide one or more direct notifications, one or more zonenotifications or both and the determination of whether to provide one ormore broadcast messages, one or more point-to-point messages or both.For example, if a device identifies that a pedestrian and one or morevehicles may be on a collision course with a vehicle that has run a redlight, then it may transmit one or more notifications to the pedestrianand the one or more identified vehicles via point-to-point messages, butthen may also transmit one or more broadcast messages that indicate azone notification for any vehicles or pedestrians that are notidentified by the device.

FIG. 4 is an example diagram that may illustrate one or more processesas described throughout the specification. The example diagram 400 showsthe Vehicle B 420 is proceeding through an intersection (from south tonorth) 410 at a time when it is not allowed to do so. Vehicles C 440 andVehicle E 460 may be allowed to proceed through the intersection 410(from east to west) at this same specific time; however, Vehicle E 460may be unaware that it is on a collision course with Vehicle B 420(because its camera system may be blocked by Vehicle C 440). Vehicle A430 may identify or determine that this is an issue and may provide awarning to Vehicle E 460. This warning may be a broadcast message or apoint-to-point message. In this example, the message to Vehicle E may bea direct notification. It may also provide a zone notification that arein proximity to the Vehicle C 440 and Vehicle E 460 to indicate boththose vehicles may need to stop for safety reasons, so any vehiclebehind them can use this message to slow down.

However, Vehicle A 430 may determine that both the pedestrian 470,Vehicle E 460 and Vehicle C 440 may be affected by Vehicle B's 420action, so it may send a zone notification via a broadcast message toavoid proceeding from east to west through the intersection untilVehicle B 420 can exited the intersection or at the very least passedthrough the intersection of the corresponding lane (e.g. passed VehicleC 440's lane).

In one embodiment, Vehicle A 430 may provide a zone notification via apoint-to-point message to Vehicle C 440, and Vehicle C 440 may use thisinformation to transmit a zone notification relative to itself to avoidnearby vehicles or pedestrians from colliding with Vehicle B 420.

It is important to note that while the examples illustrated may indicatea peer-to-peer configuration or peer-to-peer messaging, it may also usea managed communication network, multi-hop peer-to-peer system or anycombination thereof. For example, Vehicle A 430 may communicate directlywith the RSU 450 and the RSU 450 may transmit a message directly withVehicle E 460, Vehicle C 40 and/or Pedestrian 470.

Vehicle A 430 may determine an issue that may affect a zone and notifythe RSU 450. The RSU 450 may more specifically identify which device's(e.g. Vehicle C 440, Vehicle E 460 and Pedestrian 470) are within thezone and it may notify, either via a point-to-point message or broadcastmessage, that those devices may be affected by this issue.

In another example, Vehicle A 430 may identify that Vehicle B 420 hasrun a red light, so Vehicle A 430 may request that Vehicle B 420 stop.Vehicle B 120 may receive this message and stop in the intersection 410to allow Vehicle E 460 and/or Pedestrian 470 proceed through theintersection from east to west. According to an aspect of the disclosureVehicle B 420 may also go in reverse to allow Vehicle C 440 to proceedthrough the intersection 410. Vehicle B 420 may then proceed through theintersection 410 after those vehicles and pedestrians have crossed orwhen it is safe to do so.

In some circumstances, instead vehicle's self-monitoring or making thesedecisions for determine who to proceed, they may request that the RSU450 make these determinations. For example, when Vehicle B 420 has beennotified that it has run the red light (or it has determined thisviolation itself), it may request that the RSU 450 determine how theVehicle B 420 should respond. The RSU 450 may indicate that the VehicleB 420 should proceed through the intersection while the pedestrian 470,Vehicle E 460 and Vehicle C 440 wait. Alternatively, the RSU 450 maymake Vehicle B 420 wait or back up so that Vehicle C 440, Vehicle E 460and Pedestrian 470 can proceed through or parallel to the intersection410.

FIG. 5 is an example process diagram illustrating vehicle platoonnegotiation. At block 510, a device may identify one or more vehicleplatoons in proximity to the device or it may identify one or morevehicles in proximity to it that may be eligible to be in platoon. Theidentification may be based on various criteria, such as capabilities ofthe platoon, destination of the platoon, duration for the platoon tostay together on the road, or any combination thereof. This informationmay be broadcasted by the platoon, may be requested by a vehicle thatwishes to join the platoon, may receive this information from a server,may be part of the RTM or any combination thereof.

A device may identify which platoon it may attempt to join based oncapabilities. For example, a device may determine there is a platoonthat requires RF communications, autonomous driving, camera(s), radar(s)and ultrasonic sensor(s), and if the device or the co-located vehiclethat includes the device has those capabilities then it may identifythat are a potential platoon candidate. This may similarly be done ifthe device has at least a portion of the journey that is similar to thedestination of the platoon or the duration where the platoon will have asimilar journey to the device.

In another example, a device may identify one or more vehicles inproximity to itself that may be eligible to be part of a platoon. Thedevice may identify that the nearby vehicles and the device will be onthe same road for a particular duration, may have a similar destinationor any combination thereof. The device may also need additionalinformation, such as the nearby device's capabilities, driving modes, orany combination thereof. If a nearby device can only be manually drivenor provide assistance information to the driver, then it may not meetthe capabilities required to join or be a part of a platoon. In somecircumstances, they may still be part of a platoon but the spacing fromthat particular vehicle and another vehicle may be increased to accountfor a human driver (this may similarly be adjusted based on theautonomous system response time and/or the device's sensor responsetime).

At block 520, the device may transmit one or more requests to join theidentified one or more vehicle platoons. The one or more requests mayindicate the device's capabilities, device's driving modes, destination,system response times, sensor response times, encryption keys, or anycombination thereof.

The device's capabilities may indicate RF capabilities (e.g. dedicatedshort range communications (DSRC), cellular vehicle-to-everything(C-V2X), 5G C-V2X, dual sim dual standby, etc.), sensor capabilities(e.g. Radar(s), camera(s), LiDAR(s), GNSS, ultrasonic sensor(s)), or anycombination thereof.

The capabilities may also indicate features or a more specific type ofsensor for each sensor. For example, it may indicate real-time kinematic(RTK) for GNSS, dual band GNSS, long range radar, medium range radar,short range radar, depth camera, red/green/blue camera, etc.

The capabilities may also indicate the number of each sensor or sensortype and/or the placement of those sensors. For example, it may indicatethere is a forward-facing camera and two side facing cameras for eachside of the vehicle.

In one embodiment, the device capabilities may indicate the vehicle'smake/model or other identification information. The receiving devicesmay use this information to lookup the device's capabilities.

As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 6, Vehicle C 630 may identify theplatoon of Vehicle A 610, Vehicle B 620 and Vehicle D. Vehicle C 630 mayrequest to join their platoon. This request may be one or more broadcastmessages and/or one or more point-to-point messages.

At block 530, the device may receive one or more responses to the one ormore requests. The responses may indicate that the device may join theplatoon, a device may not join the platoon, a request for moreinformation, platoon calibration information, or any combinationthereof.

In one embodiment, the device may receive a request for moreinformation. For example, the response may request response informationby the autonomous system, braking information, acceleration information,sensor response information, gas/energy current levels, energy availablestorage capacity, or any combination thereof.

The response information by the autonomous system may indicate whetherthe spacing between vehicles is sufficient to avoid a potentialaccident, so if a platoon is operating with a particular spacing thenthe platoon may use that as a requirement and make sure the device cancomply with that spacing requirement. This may similarly be done for thebraking information, acceleration information and sensor responseinformation.

The gas/energy current level may be used to evaluate whether the devicewill stay within the platoon or will need to remove itself from theplatoon before reaching the predetermined break off point. If the devicedoes not have sufficient gas/energy levels to make it to thepredetermined break off point from the platoon, then the platoon may usethat determine that the device should not be part of the platoon.

The energy/gas current level may also be used to determine placementwithin the platoon. For example, if the device does not have sufficientenergy/gas levels to make it to the predetermined break off point forthe device from the platoon, then the platoon may still allow the deviceto be apart of the platoon but it may have the device placed at the backof the platoon so it can break off earlier from the platoon so that itmay obtain more gas/energy.

In one embodiment, the platoon may place the device in a space inproximity to another vehicle that is able to charge the device. Forexample, if another vehicle has the capability to charge a vehicle inproximity to it and have sufficient energy to do so, then the platoonmay place the device that needs additional energy in proximity to thatparticular vehicle.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, the device's available energycapacity may be used to determine whether or not they can join theplatoon or where they can join the platoon. For example, there may bevehicles that able to produce energy (e.g. solar panels, regenerativebrakes, etc.) but they may their batteries may be full. In thiscircumstance, by adding vehicles that have additional energy capacityavailable, it allows the vehicles generating electricity to charge thevehicles with the additional energy capacity, so the entire system ismore efficient rather than losing opportunities to generate electricity.

It is important to note that while these examples indicate that aplatoon may be in the same lane, this is not required. A platoon mayinclude vehicles that are in proximity to one another, such as side byside, front to back, combination of both, etc. For example, a vehicleplatoon may have mostly members that are in the same lane, but anotherpart of the vehicle platoon may include vehicles that are in closeproximity to the other vehicles and may even have reduced spacing fromwhat may be provided with the predetermined lanes (or even markedlanes).

The device may provide the additional requested information to theplatoon for evaluation. This information may be provided to the head ofthe platoon, a section leader for a part of the platoon, the vehicles inproximity to the device, vehicles that potentially may occupy a space infront of the device or behind the device within the platoon, or anycombination thereof.

The requests for additional information and responses to the request foradditional information may be iterative and may happen until adefinitive response is received of whether or not the vehicle can jointhe platoon.

In one embodiment, the device may receive a response indicating platooncalibration information. This may request that the device provide sensorinformation for a period of time, so the platoon can evaluate whetherthe device can join the platoon. For example, it may measure theresponse time from when it sends a request to the device to how long ittakes for the device to perform a procedure (e.g. braking, acceleration,movement, etc.). The platoon may use this information to determinewhether or not the device can join their platoon.

If a device receives a response that indicates it cannot join a platoon,it may negotiate with one or more other platoons or one or more othervehicles until it joins or creates a platoon.

If a device receives a response that it can join a platoon, the responsemessage may also include where it can join the platoon, whichcapabilities of the vehicle that needs to be enabled, configurationinformation for the platoon or any combination thereof.

The positional information of where a device can join a platoon mayinclude device identifiers (e.g. globally unique identifiers, proximityunique identifiers, etc.), one or more sets of device characteristics,or any combination thereof. For example, it may indicate the device mayjoin in the space after the vehicle with a license plate “5LOF455” andbefore the “White Honda Pilot w/the EX trim”.

The response may also indicate which capabilities to activate. Forexample, it may indicate that the vehicle's RF communication, ultrasonicsensors and long-range radar should be enabled. In one embodiment, itmay specify which sensor(s) from a plurality of sensors of the same orsimilar type should be enabled. For example, it may indicate that thevehicle's front ultrasound sensors, the side cameras and the frontlong-range radar should be enabled.

The response may also indicate the periodicity of the sensors. Forexample, it may indicate that the device's side cameras should be athundred percent duty cycle, but the long range radar should be at afifty percent duty cycle. In some embodiment, the response may indicatea quasi-periodicity and/or on-demand requests. A member of the platoonmay request that the device perform a particular sensor measurement, andthis may be coordinated within the platoon. For example, a sectionleader of a platoon may instruct that the device and a second device toalternate who performs a radar measurement but requires that it iscaptured every second, and the section leader may also assign the deviceand a third device to alternate who captures front camera data butrequires that it is captured every twenty seconds.

A platoon member may also provide instructions to other platoon memberswhere the execution of the instructions is based on a trigger event. Forexample, a section leader may indicate that the device and the seconddevice alternate a front camera capture every thirty seconds, but if therelative signal strength from RF communications between the device andthe second device falls below a threshold then they both capture cameradata every ten milliseconds.

The device may also receive configuration information for the platoon.The platoon may indicate communication channels, protocols, etc. thatthe device is to use. For example, it may indicate a first communicationchannel and power level that the device is to use with the vehicles thatare immediately in front of them and/or immediately behind them. It mayalso provide a second communication channel and power level to vehiclesoutside of that range. It may also have a dedicated communicationchannel to use for emergency situations (e.g. hard stop, emergencymaneuver, etc.).

At block 540, the device may perform one or more actions based on thereceived one or more responses. The device may maneuver into a space tobe part of the platoon. In one embodiment, the device may already be inproximity to the platoon, so it may request configuration information(if such information is not provided in the response messages to therequest to join the platoon) and after it has applied the configurationinformation it may notify the platoon it has joined it. According to anaspect of the disclosure, the device may transmit an acknowledgementmessage once it has joined the platoon once it is in proximity to theplatoon or it has maneuvered into the designated spot within theplatoon.

It is important to note that the device may be a co-located devicewithin the vehicle, so the device may instruct the vehicle to performthese maneuvers or obtain sensor information from sensors embeddedwithin the vehicle.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, Vehicle C 630 may receive a response from oneor more vehicles in the platoon (e.g. Vehicle A 610, Vehicle B 620,Vehicle D). If the response indicates that Vehicle C 630 may join theirplatoon, it may send an acknowledgement message. It may stay in the sameposition it is in on FIG. 6 or it may move into the space betweenVehicle A 610 and Vehicle B 620. In some circumstances, if Vehicle C 630decided to stay in its current lane, Vehicle C 630 may adjust itslateral position so Vehicle C 630 is closer to Vehicles A 610 andVehicle B 620 without being in the same lane but also not being entirelywithin the middle north bound lane.

FIG. 7 shows a process diagram of requesting information from one ormore pedestrian devices, one or more vehicular device, one or more venuedevices or any combination thereof.

At block 710, a device (e.g. mobile device 100 and/or server 140)identifies one or more pedestrian devices, one or more vehiculardevices, one or more venue devices or any combination thereof. Thedevice may identify them based on the user input, safety,application(s), or any combination thereof. For example, a gamingapplication may identifying one or more devices that are in proximity tothe device that have the same application. In another example, planningcontrol function may identify one or more pedestrians in close proximityto the vehicle that may potentially interfere or collide with thevehicle, so this identification may be done so later coordinate withthose pedestrians to determine who should proceed through anintersection or crosswalk. The identification may be done based ondistance, time, relevance to a path a vehicle may be taking, etc. It maybe done with latitude/longitude coordinates, video/image data,ultrasound, radar, LiDAR, etc.

The device may have application(s) loaded on it or a co-located device,and the device may receive requests from these application(s) eitherdirectly or through one or more intermediaries. For example, anapplication or a preconfigured use case of the device may requestcrowdsourcing of information about nearby venues.

The device may identify based on safety. For example, the device mayidentify a pedestrian that is about to be harmed (e.g. crossing a traintrack while a train is coming). Similarly, the device may identify anearby device based on an amber alert-type system.

The device may also identify another nearby device based on user input.For example, a user may want to ask a question of a user of a nearbyvehicle, such as asking them on a date, thinks to do in the vicinity,etc.

At block 720, the device may transmit one or more information requeststo the identified one or more pedestrian devices, one or more vehiculardevices, one or more venue devices or any combination thereof. The oneor more information request may be generated based on user input,application(s), safety or any combination thereof. It may use theinformation provided during block 710 to generate this informationrequest and/or it may request additional information from a seconddevice that the device is communicated with (e.g. information requestmay be an iterative approach, so it may need to request information fromthe second device one or more times) when generating the informationrequest.

For example, when crowdsourcing venue information it may query whatinformation the one or more venue devices are able to provide and it maytransmit a request based on the information that the venue device isable to provide. For example, the venue device may provide hours,location, deals, current occupancy levels, typical busy times, etc.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, some venues may not havedevices that are able to response to these queries or may not havedevices. In these circumstances, a device may request a nearby devicethat is closest to the venue to determine information about the venue.In some circumstances, a server 140 may request information from thedevice, because it is the closest to the venue. In either circumstance,the closest device may determine whether the lights are on, if the venuelooks busy, etc. In one embodiment, any device that is able to determinewhether the lights are on may be used, not necessarily the closestdevice. The device may be equipped with infrared sensors and it may beable to classify the number of people or approximate the number ofpeople in the venue. The device may use their cameras along with aclassifier (e.g. programmed classifier, ML classifier, etc.) todetermine whether the lights are on. In one embodiment, the device mayuse its camera data, along with a classifier, to determine the number ofvehicles in the parking lot to determine whether or not a venue is open.It is important to note while there may be instances that imply oneclassifier, it is intended to mean there may be one or more classifiers.

At block 730, the device may receive one or more information responsesbased on the one or more information requests. The information responsesmay be based on user input, preprogrammed responses, providing anotification to a user, etc.

For example, if the information request was to notify the user of anoncoming train, the information response may be transmitted after anotification is displayed (presumably to the user) and the response maybe an acknowledgement message.

In another example, if the information request is asking informationfrom a user in a nearby vehicle, the information response may includethe user input by the user in the nearby vehicle (e.g. if the questionis “will you go on a date with me”, the response may be “Leave me alonecreep”).

In the example of querying a venue, the venue device may bepreprogrammed to response to particular questions, such as hours,location, deals, etc.

In one embodiment, the device may perform one or more actions based onthe one or more received information responses. The actions may includeprovide an acknowledgement message, displaying information to the user,providing the information to a third party (e.g. server) or anycombination thereof.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a mobile device 800 according to animplementation. Mobile device 100 shown in FIG. 1 may comprise one ormore features of mobile device 800 shown in FIG. 8. In certainimplementations, mobile device 800 may comprise a wireless transceiver821 which is capable of transmitting and receiving wireless signals 823via wireless antenna 822 over a wireless communication network. Wirelesstransceiver 821 may be connected to bus 801 by a wireless transceiverbus interface 820. Wireless transceiver bus interface 820 may, in someimplementations be at least partially integrated with wirelesstransceiver 821. Some implementations may include multiple wirelesstransceivers 821 and wireless antennas 822 to enable transmitting and/orreceiving signals according to corresponding multiple wirelesscommunication standards such as, for example, versions of IEEE Standard802.11, CDMA, WCDMA, LTE, UMTS, GSM, AMPS, Zigbee, Bluetooth and a 5G orNR radio interface defined by 3GPP, just to name a few examples. In aparticular implementation, wireless transceiver 821 may transmit signalson an uplink channel and receive signals on a downlink channel asdiscussed above.

The mobile device 800 may include a wired interface (not shown in FIG.9), such as ethernet, coaxial cable, controller area network (CAN), etc.

Mobile device 800 may also comprise SPS receiver 855 capable ofreceiving and acquiring SPS signals 859 via SPS antenna 858 (which maybe integrated with antenna 822 in some implementations). SPS receiver855 may also process, in whole or in part, acquired SPS signals 859 forestimating a location of mobile device 800. In some implementations,general-purpose processor(s) 811, memory 840, digital signalprocessor(s) (DSP(s)) 812 and/or specialized processors (not shown) mayalso be utilized to process acquired SPS signals, in whole or in part,and/or calculate an estimated location of mobile device 800, inconjunction with SPS receiver 855. Storage of SPS or other signals(e.g., signals acquired from wireless transceiver 821) or storage ofmeasurements of these signals for use in performing positioningoperations may be performed in memory 840 or registers (not shown).General-purpose processor(s) 811, memory 840, DSP(s) 812 and/orspecialized processors may provide or support a location engine for usein processing measurements to estimate a location of mobile device 800.In a particular implementation, all or portions of actions or operationsset forth for process 200, 300, 500, and/or 700 may be executed bygeneral-purpose processor(s) 811 or DSP(s) 812 based on machine-readableinstructions stored in memory 840.

Also shown in FIG. 8, digital signal processor(s) (DSP(s)) 812 andgeneral-purpose processor(s) 811 may be connected to memory 840 throughbus 801. A particular bus interface (not shown) may be integrated withthe DSP(s) 812, general-purpose processor(s) 811 and memory 840. Invarious implementations, functions may be performed in response toexecution of one or more machine-readable instructions stored in memory840 such as on a computer-readable storage medium, such as RAM, ROM,FLASH, or disc drive, just to name a few examples. The one or moreinstructions may be executable by general-purpose processor(s) 811,specialized processors, graphics processing unit(s) (GPU), neuralprocessor(s) (NPU), AI accelerator(s), or DSP(s) 812. Memory 840 maycomprise a non-transitory processor-readable memory and/or acomputer-readable memory that stores software code (programming code,instructions, etc.) that are executable by processor(s) 811 and/orDSP(s) 812. The processor(s) 811 and/or the DSP(s) 812 may be used toperform various operations as described throughout the specification.

Also shown in FIG. 8, a user interface 835 may comprise any one ofseveral devices such as, for example, a speaker, microphone, displaydevice, vibration device, keyboard, touch screen, just to name a fewexamples. In a particular implementation, user interface 835 may enablea user to interact with one or more applications hosted on mobile device800. For example, devices of user interface 835 may store analog ordigital signals on memory 840 to be further processed by DSP(s) 812 orgeneral-purpose processor 811 in response to action from a user.Similarly, applications hosted on mobile device 800 may store analog ordigital signals on memory 840 to present an output signal to a user. Inanother implementation, mobile device 800 may optionally include adedicated audio input/output (I/O) device 870 comprising, for example, adedicated speaker, microphone, digital to analog circuitry, analog todigital circuitry, amplifiers and/or gain control. Audio I/O 870 mayalso include ultrasound or any audio based positioning that can be usedto determine the position, orientation or context of the mobile device800. Audio I/O 870 may also be used to provide data via one or moreaudio signals to another source. It should be understood, however, thatthis is merely an example of how an audio I/O may be implemented in amobile device, and that claimed subject matter is not limited in thisrespect.

Mobile device 800 may also comprise a dedicated camera device 864 forcapturing still or moving imagery. Camera device 864 may comprise, forexample an imaging sensor (e.g., charge coupled device or CMOS imager),lens, analog to digital circuitry, frame buffers, just to name a fewexamples. In one embodiment, additional processing, conditioning,encoding or compression of signals representing captured images may beperformed at general purpose/application processor 811 or DSP(s) 812.Alternatively, a dedicated video processor 868 may perform conditioning,encoding, compression or manipulation of signals representing capturedimages. Additionally, video processor 868 may decode/decompress storedimage data for presentation on a display device (not shown) on mobiledevice 800. The video processor 868, may be an image sensor processor,and may be capable of performing computer vision operations.

Camera device 864 may include image sensors. The image sensors mayinclude cameras, charge coupled device (CCD) based devices, orComplementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) based devices, Lidar,computer vision devices, etc. on a vehicle, which may be used to obtainimages of an environment around the vehicle. Image sensors, which may bestill and/or video cameras, may capture a series of 2-Dimensional (2D)still and/or video image frames of an environment. In some embodiments,image sensors may take the form of a depth sensing camera, or may becoupled to depth sensors. The term “depth sensor” is used to refer tofunctional units that may be used to obtain depth information. In someembodiments, image sensors 232 may comprise Red-Green-Blue-Depth (RGBD)cameras, which may capture per-pixel depth (D) information when thedepth sensor is enabled, in addition to color (RGB) images. In oneembodiment, depth information may be obtained from stereo sensors suchas a combination of an infra-red structured light projector and aninfra-red camera registered to a RGB camera. In some embodiments, imagesensors may be stereoscopic cameras capable of capturing 3 Dimensional(3D) images. For example, a depth sensor may form part of a passivestereo vision sensor, which may use two or more cameras to obtain depthinformation for a scene. The pixel coordinates of points common to bothcameras in a captured scene may be used along with camera parameterinformation, camera pose information and/or triangulation techniques toobtain per-pixel depth information. In some embodiment, the image sensormay be capable of capturing infrared or other non-visible light (i.e.not visible to the human eye). In some embodiments, image sensor mayinclude Lidar sensors, which may provide measurements to estimate therelative distance of objects. The camera 864 may also be capable ofreceiving visual light communication data by capturing opticalmeasurements and demodulating to receive this data. The term “camerapose” or “image sensor pose” is also used to refer to the position andorientation of an image sensor on a subject vehicle.

Mobile device 800 may also comprise sensors 860 coupled to bus 801 whichmay include, for example, inertial sensors and environment sensors.Inertial sensors of sensors 860 may comprise, for example accelerometers(e.g., collectively responding to acceleration of mobile device 800 inthree dimensions), one or more gyroscopes or one or more magnetometers(e.g., to support one or more compass applications). Environment sensorsof mobile device 800 may comprise, for example, temperature sensors,barometric pressure sensors, ambient light sensors, camera imagers,microphones, just to name few examples. Sensors 860 may generate analogor digital signals that may be stored in memory 840 and processed byDSP(s) 812 or general-purpose application processor 811 in support ofone or more applications such as, for example, applications directed topositioning or navigation operations. The sensors 860 may also includeradar 862, which may be used to determine the distance between thedevice and another object. The sensors 860, SPS receiver 855, wirelesstransceiver 821, camera(s) 864, audio i/o 870, radar 862 or anycombination thereof may be used determine one or more locationmeasurements and/or a position location of the mobile device 800.

Mobile device 800 may comprise one or more displays 875 and/or one ormore display controllers (not shown). The displays 875 and/or thedisplay controllers may provide and/or display a user interface, visualalerts, metrics, and/or other visualizations. In one embodiment, the oneor more displays 875 and/or display controllers may be integrated withthe mobile device 800.

According to another aspect of the disclosure, the one or more displays875 and/or display controllers may be external to the mobile device 800.The mobile device 800 may have one or more input and/or output ports(I/O) 880, through a wired or wireless interface, and may use the I/O toprovide data to the external one or more displays 875 and/or displaycontroller(s).

The I/O 880 may be used for other purposes as well, such as but notlimited to obtaining data from a vehicle's onboard diagnostics, vehiclesensors, providing sensor information from the mobile device 800 to theexternal device, etc. The I/O 880 may be used to provide data, such asposition information, to another processor and/or component, such as thebehavior and/or route planning component 890.

The behavior and/or route planning component 890 may be one or morehardware components, software or any combination thereof. The behaviorand/or route planning component 890 may also be part of one or moreother components, such as but not limited to one or more generalpurpose/application processor 811, DSP 812, GPU, neural processor(s)(NPU), AI accelerator(s), microcontrollers, controllers, videoprocessor(s) 868 or any combination thereof. The behavior and/or routeplanning component 890 may determine and/or adjust vehicle speed,position, orientation, maneuvers, route, etc. The behavior and/or routeplanning component 890 may trigger alerts to the user or operator of thevehicle and/or a remote party (e.g. third party, remote operator, ownerof the vehicle, etc.) based on the determinations related to speed,position, orientation, maneuvers, route, etc. In one embodiment, thebehavior and/or route planning component 890 may also perform one ormore steps similar to those listed in FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 5, FIG. 7and/or other parts of the specification.

The driving component, not shown in FIG. 8, may be one or more hardwarecomponents, software or any combination thereof. The driving componentmay directly control steering, accelerator, braking, and directionality(e.g. forward, reverse, etc.).

The behavior and/or route planning component 890, driving component,processor 811, GPU, DSP 812, video processor(s) 868 or other type ofprocessor(s), memory 840, sensors 860, radar(s) 862, camera(s) 864,wireless transceiver 821 with modem processor 866, audio I/O 870, SPSreceiver 855 or any combination thereof may obtain environmentinformation in proximity to the first device, similar to block 210.

The behavior and/or route planning component 890, driving component,processor 811, GPU, DSP 812, video processor(s) 868 or other type ofprocessor(s), memory 840, camera(s) 864, wireless transceiver 821 withmodem processor 866, audio I/O 870, or any combination thereof receiveone or more communication messages from a second device, wherein the oneor more communication messages includes relevance criteria, wherein therelevance criteria indicates one or more devices, one or more sets ofdevice characteristics, one or more lanes, one or more intersections orareas, one or more pedestrian paths or bicycle paths, one or more signalcharacteristics from the second device or any combination thereof,similar to block 220; determining, by the first device, whether the oneor more communication messages are relevant to the first device based onthe relevance criteria and the environment information, similar to block230; and performing, by the first device, an operation in response tothe determination of whether the one or more communication messages arerelevant to the first device, similar to block 240.

The behavior and/or route planning component 890, driving component,processor 811, GPU, DSP 812, video processor(s) 868 or other type ofprocessor(s), memory 840, sensors 860, radar(s) 862, camera(s) 864,wireless transceiver 821 with modem processor 866, audio I/O 870, SPSreceiver 855 or any combination thereof may determine one or more issuesor one or more intentions, similar to block 310.

The behavior and/or route planning component 890, driving component,processor 811, GPU, DSP 812, video processor(s) 868 or other type ofprocessor(s), memory 840, wireless transceiver 821 with modem processor866, audio I/O 870 or any combination thereof may determine whether toprovide one or more direct notifications, one or more zone notificationsor both, similar to block 320; may determine whether to provide one ormore broadcast messages, one or more point-to-point messages or both,similar to block 330; and may transmit one or more notifications of oneor more determined issues or intentions based on the determination ofwhether to provide one or more direct notification, one or more zonenotifications or both and the determination of whether to provide one ormore broadcast messages, one or more point-to-point messages or both,similar to block 340.

The behavior and/or route planning component 890, driving component,processor 811, GPU, DSP 812, video processor(s) 868 or other type ofprocessor(s), memory 840, sensors 860, radar(s) 862, camera(s) 864,wireless transceiver 821 with modem processor 866, audio I/O 870, SPSreceiver 855 or any combination thereof may identify one or more vehicleplatoons, similar to block 510.

The behavior and/or route planning component 890, driving component,processor 811, GPU, DSP 812, video processor(s) 868 or other type ofprocessor(s), memory 840, wireless transceiver 821 with modem processor866, audio I/O 870 or any combination thereof may transmit one or morerequests to join the identified one or more vehicle platoons, similar toblock 520; may receive one or more responses to the one or morerequests, similar to block 530; and may perform one or more actionsbased on the received one or more response, similar to block 540.

The behavior and/or route planning component 890, driving component,processor 811, GPU, DSP 812, video processor(s) 868 or other type ofprocessor(s), memory 840, sensors 860, radar(s) 862, camera(s) 864,wireless transceiver 821 with modem processor 866, audio I/O 870, SPSreceiver 855 or any combination thereof may identify one or more people,one or more vehicles, one or more venues or any combination thereof,similar to block 710.

The behavior and/or route planning component 890, driving component,processor 811, GPU, DSP 812, video processor(s) 868 or other type ofprocessor(s), memory 840, wireless transceiver 821 with modem processor866, audio I/O 870 or any combination thereof may transmit one or moreinformation requests to the identified one or more pedestrian device,one or more vehicular devices, one or more venue devices or anycombination thereof, similar to block 720; and may receive one or moreinformation responses based on the one or more information requests,similar to block 730.

In a particular implementation, mobile device 800 may comprise adedicated modem processor 866 capable of performing baseband processingof signals received and down converted at wireless transceiver 821 orSPS receiver 855. Similarly, modem processor 866 may perform basebandprocessing of signals to be upconverted for transmission by wirelesstransceiver 821. In alternative implementations, instead of having adedicated modem processor, baseband processing may be performed by ageneral-purpose processor or DSP (e.g., general purpose/applicationprocessor 811 or DSP(s) 812). It should be understood, however, thatthese are merely examples of structures that may perform basebandprocessing, and that claimed subject matter is not limited in thisrespect.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a server 900 according to animplementation. Server 90 shown in FIG. 1 may comprise one or morefeatures of server 900 shown in FIG. 9. In certain implementations,server 900 may comprise a wireless transceiver 921 which is capable oftransmitting and receiving wireless signals 923 via wireless antenna 922over a wireless communication network. Wireless transceiver 921 may beconnected to bus 901 by a wireless transceiver bus interface 920.Wireless transceiver bus interface 920 may, in some implementations beat least partially integrated with wireless transceiver 921. Someimplementations may include multiple wireless transceivers 921 andwireless antennas 922 to enable transmitting and/or receiving signalsaccording to corresponding multiple wireless communication standardssuch as, for example, versions of IEEE Standard 802.11, CDMA, WCDMA,LTE, UMTS, GSM, AMPS, Zigbee, Bluetooth and a 5G or NR radio interfacedefined by 3GPP, just to name a few examples. In a particularimplementation, wireless transceiver 921 may transmit signals on anuplink channel and receive signals on a downlink channel as discussedabove.

It is important to note that even if not explicitly mentioned, any ofthe embodiments or examples described in the specification may use or beimplemented with various machine learning/deep learning approaches.

The server 900 may include a wired interface (not shown in FIG. 9), suchas ethernet, coaxial cable, etc.

Also shown in FIG. 9, digital signal processor(s) (DSP(s)) 912 andgeneral-purpose processor(s) 911 may be connected to memory 940 throughbus 901. A particular bus interface (not shown) may be integrated withthe DSP(s) 912, general-purpose processor(s) 911 and memory 940. Invarious implementations, functions may be performed in response toexecution of one or more machine-readable instructions stored in memory940 such as on a computer-readable storage medium, such as RAM, ROM,FLASH, or disc drive, just to name a few examples. The one or moreinstructions may be executable by general-purpose processor(s) 911,specialized processors, or DSP(s) 912. Memory 940 may comprise anon-transitory processor-readable memory and/or a computer-readablememory that stores software code (programming code, instructions, etc.)that are executable by processor(s) 911 and/or DSP(s) 912. Theprocessor(s) 911, specialized processor(s), graphics processing unit(s)(GPU), neural processor(s) (NPU), AI accelerator(s), microcontroller(s),controller(s) and/or the DSP(s) 912 may be used to perform variousoperations as described throughout the specification.

The behavior and/or route planning component 950 may be one or morehardware components, software or any combination thereof. The behaviorand/or route planning component 950 may also be part of one or moreother components, such as but not limited to one or more generalpurpose/application processor 911, DSP 912, GPU, neural processor(s)(NPU), AI accelerator(s), microcontrollers, controllers, videoprocessor(s) or any combination thereof. The behavior and/or routeplanning component 950 may determine and/or adjust vehicle speed,position, orientation, maneuvers, route, etc. The behavior and/or routeplanning component 950 may trigger alerts to the user or operator of thevehicle and/or a remote party (e.g. third party, remote operator, ownerof the vehicle, etc.) based on the determinations related to speed,position, orientation, maneuvers, route, etc. In one embodiment, thebehavior and/or route planning component 950 may also perform one ormore steps similar to those listed in FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 5, FIG. 7and/or other parts of the specification.

The traffic management controller 960 may be one or more hardwarecomponents, software or any combination thereof. The behavior and/orroute planning component 950 may also be part of one or more othercomponents, such as but not limited to one or more generalpurpose/application processor 911, DSP 912, GPU, neural processor(s)(NPU), AI accelerator(s), microcontrollers, controllers, videoprocessor(s), behavior/route planning 950 or any combination thereof.The traffic management controller 960 may use the RTM to determineoptimized routes for vehicles and/or pedestrians based on currenttraffic patterns and/or predicted traffic patterns. The trafficmanagement controller 960 may be used by traffic lights (e.g. physicaltraffic lights, virtual traffic lights, etc.) or operators of trafficlights to control the flow of traffic in a city, municipality, etc.

FIG. 9 does not show sensors, camera(s), radar(s), LiDAR, etc. but itmay include these components. This is may be likely if the server 900 isan RSU or a network edge server.

The behavior and/or route planning component 950, processor 911, GPU,DSP 912, video processor(s), sensors, camera, radar, LiDAR or other typeof processor(s), memory 940, wireless transceiver 921, wired interfaceor any combination thereof may obtain environment information inproximity to the first device, similar to block 210.

The behavior and/or route planning component 950, processor 911, GPU,DSP 912, video processor(s) or other type of processor(s), memory 940,wireless transceiver 921, wired interface or any combination thereof mayreceive one or more communication messages from a second device, whereinthe one or more communication messages includes relevance criteria,wherein the relevance criteria indicates one or more devices, one ormore sets of device characteristics, one or more lanes, one or moreintersections or areas, one or more pedestrian paths or bicycle paths,one or more signal characteristics from the second device or anycombination thereof, similar to block 220; determining, by the firstdevice, whether the one or more communication messages are relevant tothe first device based on the relevance criteria and the environmentinformation, similar to block 230; and performing, by the first device,an operation in response to the determination of whether the one or morecommunication messages are relevant to the first device, similar toblock 240.

The behavior and/or route planning component 950, processor 911, GPU,DSP 912, video processor(s) or other type of processor(s), memory 940,wireless transceiver 921, wired interface or any combination thereof maydetermine one or more issues or one or more intentions, similar to block310; may determine whether to provide one or more direct notifications,one or more zone notifications or both, similar to block 320; maydetermine whether to provide one or more broadcast messages, one or morepoint-to-point messages or both, similar to block 330; and may transmitone or more notifications of one or more determined issues or intentionsbased on the determination of whether to provide one or more directnotification, one or more zone notifications or both and thedetermination of whether to provide one or more broadcast messages, oneor more point-to-point messages or both, similar to block 340; mayidentify one or more vehicle platoons, similar to block 510; maytransmit one or more requests to join the identified one or more vehicleplatoons, similar to block 520; may receive one or more responses to theone or more requests, similar to block 530; and may perform one or moreactions based on the received one or more response, similar to block540; may identify one or more people, one or more vehicles, one or morevenues or any combination thereof, similar to block 710; may transmitone or more information requests to the identified one or morepedestrian device, one or more vehicular devices, one or more venuedevices or any combination thereof, similar to block 720; and mayreceive one or more information responses based on the one or moreinformation requests, similar to block 730.

Discussions throughout the specification include examples and/orembodiments that may be combined in various ways even if notspecifically discussed in that particular combination.

Discussions of coupling between components in this specification do notrequire the components to be directly coupled. These components may becoupled directly or through one or more intermediaries. Additionally,coupling does not require they be directly attached, but it may alsoinclude electrically coupled, optically coupled, communicatively coupledor any combination thereof.

Reference throughout this specification to “one example”, “an example”,“certain examples”, or “exemplary implementation” means that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the feature and/or example may be included in at least one featureand/or example of claimed subject matter. Thus, the appearances of thephrase “in one example”, “an example”, “in certain examples” or “incertain implementations” or other like phrases in various placesthroughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame feature, example, and/or limitation. Furthermore, the particularfeatures, structures, or characteristics may be combined in one or moreexamples and/or features.

Some portions of the detailed description included herein are presentedin terms of algorithms or symbolic representations of operations onbinary digital signals stored within a memory of a specific apparatus orspecial purpose computing device or platform. In the context of thisparticular specification, the term specific apparatus or the likeincludes a general-purpose computer once it is programmed to performparticular operations pursuant to instructions from program software.Algorithmic descriptions or symbolic representations are examples oftechniques used by those of ordinary skill in the signal processing orrelated arts to convey the substance of their work to others skilled inthe art. An algorithm is here, and generally, is considered to be aself-consistent sequence of operations or similar signal processingleading to a desired result. In this context, operations or processinginvolve physical manipulation of physical quantities. Typically,although not necessarily, such quantities may take the form ofelectrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred,combined, compared or otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient attimes, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to such signalsas bits, data, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers,numerals, or the like. It should be understood, however, that all ofthese or similar terms are to be associated with appropriate physicalquantities and are merely convenient labels. Unless specifically statedotherwise, as apparent from the discussion herein, it is appreciatedthat throughout this specification discussions utilizing terms such as“processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining” or the likerefer to actions or processes of a specific apparatus, such as a specialpurpose computer, special purpose computing apparatus or a similarspecial purpose electronic computing device. In the context of thisspecification, therefore, a special purpose computer or a similarspecial purpose electronic computing device is capable of manipulatingor transforming signals, typically represented as physical electronic ormagnetic quantities within memories, registers, or other informationstorage devices, transmission devices, or display devices of the specialpurpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device.

In another aspect, as previously mentioned, a wireless transmitter oraccess point may comprise a cellular transceiver device, utilized toextend cellular telephone service into a business or home. In such animplementation, one or more mobile devices may communicate with acellular transceiver device via a code division multiple access (“CDMA”)cellular communication protocol, for example.

Techniques described herein may be used with an SPS that includes anyone of several GNSS and/or combinations of GNSS. Furthermore, suchtechniques may be used with positioning systems that utilize terrestrialtransmitters acting as “pseudolites”, or a combination of SVs and suchterrestrial transmitters. Terrestrial transmitters may, for example,include ground-based transmitters that broadcast a PN code or otherranging code (e.g., similar to a GPS or CDMA cellular signal). Such atransmitter may be assigned a unique PN code so as to permitidentification by a remote receiver. Terrestrial transmitters may beuseful, for example, to augment an SPS in situations where SPS signalsfrom an orbiting SV might be unavailable, such as in tunnels, mines,buildings, urban canyons or other enclosed areas. Another implementationof pseudolites is known as radio-beacons. The term “SV”, as used herein,is intended to include terrestrial transmitters acting as pseudolites,equivalents of pseudolites, and possibly others. The terms “SPS signals”and/or “SV signals”, as used herein, is intended to include SPS-likesignals from terrestrial transmitters, including terrestrialtransmitters acting as pseudolites or equivalents of pseudolites.

In the preceding detailed description, numerous specific details havebeen set forth to provide a thorough understanding of claimed subjectmatter. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatclaimed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details.In other instances, methods and apparatuses that would be known by oneof ordinary skill have not been described in detail so as not to obscureclaimed subject matter.

The terms, “and”, “or”, and “and/or” as used herein may include avariety of meanings that also are expected to depend at least in partupon the context in which such terms are used. Typically, “or” if usedto associate a list, such as A, B or C, is intended to mean A, B, and C,here used in the inclusive sense, as well as A, B or C, here used in theexclusive sense. In addition, the term “one or more” as used herein maybe used to describe any feature, structure, or characteristic in thesingular or may be used to describe a plurality or some othercombination of features, structures or characteristics. Though, itshould be noted that this is merely an illustrative example and claimedsubject matter is not limited to this example.

While there has been illustrated and described what are presentlyconsidered to be example features, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various other modifications may be made, andequivalents may be substituted, without departing from claimed subjectmatter. Additionally, many modifications may be made to adapt aparticular situation to the teachings of claimed subject matter withoutdeparting from the central concept described herein.

Therefore, it is intended that claimed subject matter not be limited tothe particular examples disclosed, but that such claimed subject mattermay also include all aspects falling within the scope of appendedclaims, and equivalents thereof.

For an implementation involving firmware and/or software, themethodologies may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures,functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. Anymachine-readable medium tangibly embodying instructions may be used inimplementing the methodologies described herein. For example, softwarecodes may be stored in a memory and executed by a processor unit. Memorymay be implemented within the processor unit or external to theprocessor unit. As used herein the term “memory” refers to any type oflong term, short term, volatile, nonvolatile, or other memory and is notto be limited to any particular type of memory or number of memories, ortype of media upon which memory is stored.

If implemented in firmware and/or software, the functions may be storedas one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable storagemedium. Examples include computer-readable media encoded with a datastructure and computer-readable media encoded with a computer program.Computer-readable media includes physical computer storage media. Astorage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by acomputer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readablemedia can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical diskstorage, magnetic disk storage, semiconductor storage, or other storagedevices, or any other medium that can be used to store desired programcode in the form of instructions or data structures and that can beaccessed by a computer; disk and disc, as used herein, includes compactdisc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD),floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce datamagnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media.

In addition to storage on computer-readable storage medium, instructionsand/or data may be provided as signals on transmission media included ina communication apparatus. For example, a communication apparatus mayinclude a transceiver having signals indicative of instructions anddata. The instructions and data are configured to cause one or moreprocessors to implement the functions outlined in the claims. That is,the communication apparatus includes transmission media with signalsindicative of information to perform disclosed functions. At a firsttime, the transmission media included in the communication apparatus mayinclude a first portion of the information to perform the disclosedfunctions, while at a second time the transmission media included in thecommunication apparatus may include a second portion of the informationto perform the disclosed functions.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of operating a first device, the methodcomprising: obtaining, by the first device, environment information inproximity to the first device; receiving, by the first device, one ormore communication messages from a second device, wherein the one ormore communication messages include relevance criteria, wherein therelevance criteria indicates one or more devices, one or more sets ofdevice characteristics, one or more lanes, one or more intersections orareas, one or more pedestrian paths or bicycle paths, one or more signalcharacteristics from the second device or any combination thereof;determining, by the first device, whether the one or more communicationmessages are relevant to the first device based on the relevancecriteria and the environment information; and performing, by the firstdevice, an operation in response to the determination of whether the oneor more communication messages are relevant to the first device.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the environment information comprises one ormore images of an environment in proximity to the first device, areal-world traffic model (RTM) or any combination thereof.
 3. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: obtaining one or more devicecharacteristics corresponding to the first device; and determiningwhether the one or more communication messages are relevant to the firstdevice is further based on the first device characteristics and the oneor more sets of device characteristics.
 4. The method of claim 1,further comprising: in response to the determination of whether the oneor more communication messages are relevant to the first device,transmitting an acknowledgement message to the second device, whereinthe acknowledgement message indicates that the first device has receivedthe one or more communication messages and indicates whether the one ormore communication messages are relevant to the first device.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, the method further comprising: determining whetherthe first device is to coordinate with the second device based on one ormore device characteristics of the second device from the one or moresets of device characteristics and the environment information.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein the determining whether the first device isto coordinate with the second device based on the one or more devicecharacteristics of the second device and the environment informationfurther comprises: transmitting one or more requests to the seconddevice, wherein the one or more requests indicate the second device toperform an action, capture one or more images of the first device or athird device from the second device, or any combination thereof; anddetermining whether the second device is a non-spoofed device based on aresponse to the one or more requests.
 7. The method of claim 5, furthercomprising: in response to the determination that the first device is tocoordinate with the second device, determining whether the first deviceshould perform a vehicular maneuver based on the one or morecommunication messages.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one ormore communication messages indicate one or more intentions of thesecond device, one or more actions to be performed or requested to beperformed by the second device, or any combination thereof.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: in response to the determinationthat the one or more communication messages are relevant to the firstdevice, setting a pertinence level associated with the second device toa higher level.
 10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:transmitting a second set of one or more communication messages, whereinthe second set of one or more communication messages indicates one ormore coordinated driving actions to be performed by the second device,to be performed by the first device or both.
 11. The method of claim 1,wherein the environment information comprises one or more images; andwherein determining whether the one or more communication messages arerelevant to the first device based on the relevance criteria and theenvironment information further comprises: determining whether the firstdevice is in an area indicated in the relevance criteria of the one ormore communication messages based on the one or more images; in responseto the determination that the first device is in the area indicated bythe relevance criteria, determining whether the first device shouldperform a vehicular maneuver based on the one or more communicationmessages.
 12. A first device comprising: one or more memory; one or moretransceivers; one or more processors, wherein the one or more processorsare communicatively coupled to the one or more memory and the one ormore transceivers, wherein the one or more processors configured to:obtain environment information in proximity to the first device;receive, via the one or more transceivers, one or more communicationmessages from a second device, wherein the one or more communicationmessages include relevance criteria, wherein the relevance criteriaindicates one or more devices, one or more sets of devicecharacteristics, one or more lanes, one or more intersections or areas,one or more pedestrian paths or bicycle paths, one or more signalcharacteristics from the second device or any combination thereof;determine whether the one or more communication messages are relevant tothe first device based on the relevance criteria and the environmentinformation; and perform an operation in response to the determinationof whether the one or more communication messages are relevant to thefirst device.
 13. The first device of claim 12, wherein the environmentinformation comprises one or more images of an environment in proximityto the first device, a real-world traffic model (RTM) or any combinationthereof.
 14. The first device of claim 12, the one or more processorsare further configured to: obtain one or more device characteristicscorresponding to the first device; and determine whether the one or morecommunication messages are relevant to the first device is further basedon the first device characteristics and the one or more sets of devicecharacteristics.
 15. The first device of claim 12, the one or moreprocessors are further configured to: in response to the determinationof whether the one or more communication messages are relevant to thefirst device, transmit an acknowledgement message to the second device,wherein the acknowledgement message indicates that the first device hasreceived the one or more communication messages and indicates whetherthe one or more communication messages are relevant to the first device.16. The first device of claim 12, the one or more processors areconfigured to determine whether the first device is to coordinate withthe second device based on one or more device characteristics of thesecond device from the one or more sets of device characteristics andthe environment information.
 17. The first device of claim 16, whereinthe one or more processors configured to determine whether the firstdevice is to coordinate with the second device based on the one or moredevice characteristics of the second device and the environmentinformation further comprises the one or more processors configured to:transmit one or more requests to the second device, wherein the one ormore requests indicate the second device to perform an action, captureone or more images of the first device or a third device from the seconddevice, or any combination thereof; and determine whether the seconddevice is a non-spoofed device based on a response to the one or morerequests.
 18. The first device of claim 16, further comprising the oneor more processors configured to: in response to the determination thatthe first device is to coordinate with the second device, determinewhether the first device should perform a vehicular maneuver based onthe one or more communication messages.
 19. The first device of claim12, wherein the one or more communication messages indicate one or moreintentions of the second device, one or more actions to be performed orrequested to be performed by the second device, or any combinationthereof.
 20. The first device of claim 12, further comprising the one ormore processors configured to: in response to the determination that theone or more communication messages are relevant to the first device, seta pertinence level associated with the second device to a higher level.21. The first device of claim 16, further comprising the one or moreprocessors configured to: transmit a second set of one or morecommunication messages, wherein the second set of one or morecommunication messages indicates one or more coordinated driving actionsto be performed by the second device, to be performed by the firstdevice or both.
 22. The first device of claim 12, wherein theenvironment information comprises one or more images; and wherein theone or more processors further configured to determine whether the oneor more communication messages are relevant to the first device based onthe relevance criteria and the environment information furthercomprises: the one or more processors further configured to: determinewhether the first device is in an area indicated in the relevancecriteria of the one or more communication messages based on the one ormore images; in response to the determination that the first device isin the area indicated by the relevance criteria, determine whether thefirst device should perform a vehicular maneuver based on the one ormore communication messages.
 23. A first device comprising: means forobtaining environment information in proximity to the first device;means for receiving one or more communication messages from a seconddevice, wherein the one or more communication messages includesrelevance criteria, wherein the relevance criteria indicates one or moredevices, one or more sets of device characteristics, one or more lanes,one or more intersections or areas, one or more pedestrian paths orbicycle paths, one or more signal characteristics from the second deviceor any combination thereof; means for determining whether the one ormore communication messages are relevant to the first device based onthe relevance criteria and the environment information; and means forperforming an operation in response to the determination of whether theone or more communication messages are relevant to the first device. 24.The first device of claim 23, wherein the environment informationcomprises one or more images of an environment in proximity to the firstdevice, a real-world traffic model (RTM) or any combination thereof. 25.The first device of claim 23, the first device further comprising: meansfor obtaining one or more device characteristics corresponding to thefirst device; and means for determining whether the one or morecommunication messages are relevant to the first device is further basedon the first device characteristics and the one or more sets of devicecharacteristics.
 26. A non-transitory computer-readable medium foroperating a first device, the first device comprisingprocessor-executable program code configured to cause one or moreprocessors to: obtain environment information in proximity to the firstdevice; receive one or more communication messages from a second device,wherein the one or more communication messages includes relevancecriteria, wherein the relevance criteria indicates one or more devices,one or more sets of device characteristics, one or more lanes, one ormore intersections or areas, one or more pedestrian paths or bicyclepaths, one or more signal characteristics from the second device or anycombination thereof; determine whether the one or more communicationmessages are relevant to the first device based on the relevancecriteria and the environment information; and perform, by the firstdevice, an operation in response to the determination of whether the oneor more communication messages are relevant to the first device.
 27. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein theenvironment information comprises one or more images of an environmentin proximity to the first device, a real-world traffic model (RTM) orany combination thereof.
 28. The non-transitory computer-readable mediumof claim 26, the non-transitory computer-readable medium furthercomprising processor-executable program code configured to cause the oneor more processors to: obtain one or more device characteristicscorresponding to the first device; and determine whether the one or morecommunication messages are relevant to the first device is further basedon the first device characteristics and the one or more sets of devicecharacteristics.